13-149 August 27, 2013 Nissan Motor Resiliency Company Ltd. Building Operational William Schmidt, David Simchi-Levi On March 11, 2011 a 9.0-magnitude
QSO 300 Final Project Milestone One
Your Name
The Date
BE SURE TO REPLACE ALL RED TEXT. MY WORDS SHOULD NOT BE USED AS AN ANSWER, THEY SERVE AS A GUIDE AND TEMPLATE, NOT THE ANSWER.
Introduction:
Write a brief 2-3 sentence introduction simply describing what Nissan has going on and what we are going to review. …Nissan has just experiences a massive earthquake and tsunami. The below paper describes how proper OM practices will help Nissan recover.
I. Generating Value A. Evaluate how the company in the case study uses operations management functions to provide products and generate value for its customers. Support your claims with examples from the case study or outside sources.
Write 4-7 sentences about what Nissan’s operations function do to create value for the customers. While the some of the small specific actions they take should be noted here, don’t forget to state the obvious OM output. (Think, what does Nissan build?). What they build is their value proposition. What OM does to support this value proposition should be noted here.
I. Generating Value B. Assess how this company achieves a competitive advantage using operations management. Provide examples found in the case study or outside sources to support your reasoning.
Write 4-7 sentences about what Nissan’s OM function does to achieve a competitive advantage. Be sure to clearly spell out that action A is done better than the competition, so this creates a competitive advantage. Variations of the words “to create a competitive advantage”, “does better than the industry”, etc., should be used throughout this section. You want to talk about what Nissan does better, and call out that it creates a competitive advantage because (it makes them more efficient, it allows them to sell cheap, it allows …) Of note, some of the things that Nissan’s OM does in the above item may be repeated here.
I. Generating Value C. Compare and contrast service operations and manufacturing operations at the company in the case study. How are they the same? How do they differ? How does each of these operations provide value for their customers?
Write 4-7 sentences answering the above. Start by talking about the differences between Service Operations and Production Operations. I am looking for one tangible point, pun intended. You can apply these concepts to Nissan during the description or describe Service Operations v. Production Operations and then move onto Nissan, but be sure to apply the concept to Nissan. A few sentences on the differences and similarities between Service and Production, and a few sentences on how Nissan uses these. Nissan’s manufacturing, that is pretty obvious what they do. What about Nissan’s service? Keep in mind this is customer facing work, not internal things. Warranty…service work…etc.
II. Theories and Techniques A. Compare and contrast the critical path method (CPM) and the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). What types of projects at this company would favor PERT over CPM? Why? What types of projects at this company would favor CPM over PERT? Why?
Write 4-7 sentences answering the above. What is PERT and what is CPM? How are they similar, how are they different? After you see the difference, you will want to apply the techniques to a project that Nissan might take on. Based on the differences, what would PERT be better for and why (be specific) and what would CPM be better for and why (be specific).Page 65 as guide. Remember that a major difference is PERT’s ability to account for variations in time. What projects could have variations in time (complex ones, R and D projects, etc).
II. Theories and Techniques B. Explain the steps used to develop a forecasting system. How would these steps be specifically utilized by this company? What do you predict would be the result of implementing a forecasting system for the top-selling product line at this company?
Write 4-7 sentences answering the above. The steps come from your text, no need to be creative with Google. The best replies that I have seen list out the step and then how Nissan would apply then, moving consecutively through the list. The biggest mistake here that I see is trying to do too much, or being descriptive. Don’t tell me about the considerations for each step, tell me what Nissan would decide for each step.
Step 1-Determine the use of the forecast. During this step, Nissan would decide they are going to forecast sales.
Step 2-Select the item to be forecast.During this step, Nissan would chose to forecast the Nissan Maxima.
Step 3-Select the time horizon for the forecast. During this step, Nissan would decide to forecast on an annual basis.
Page 106-107 as guide
II. Theories and Techniques C. List the major categories of supply chain risk and associated risk reduction tactics. How could the company mitigate exposure to supply chain disruptions caused by natural disasters? For example, consider the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan.
Write 4-7 sentences answering the above. The categories come from your text, no need to be creative with Google. Some of the best responses I have seen were charted out:
Any company that uses outside suppliers incurs some level of risk. Below is a list of risks and what companies, Nissan specifically, can do to help mitigate or reduce the associated risk.
Risk How Nissan Can Mitigate the Risk
Supply Risk 1 Nissan would mitigate this by…
Supply Risk 2 Nissan would mitigate this by…
Page 438 as guide
End with a couple sentence closing… Something like, in short, the above OM processes and strategies help to make Nissan awesomesauce…. You should use better sentences though.
I hope this helps!
Be sure to include a reference page. The reference page should list a couple of sources (text, case study, another outside source?).
—Andrew Sherwood
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