Kaplan MT400 unit 8 assignment

Unit 8 Assignment: Establishing Baselines and Assessing Success

In this Assignment, through the evaluation of baseline metrics, you will engage in developing the following professional competencies:

?Analyze quantitative data

One of the key elements in realizing benefits is the establishment of a baseline. Your book suggests that the completion of metrics is an essential step at the time of modeling the current processes, and it is this baseline from which improvements are measured. In this Assignment, you will apply this concept to your project. You will also carry out a mathematical analysis of a fictional situation and make a determination about success.

To help you prepare for the Assignment, please view this 5 minute Kaplan Math Center video on percentages: “Interpreting Percentage Problems.”

In this Assignment, you are going to evaluate a specific business process based on criteria detailed below. If you already have selected a business process, continue using that and skip to the next paragraph. If you have not yet selected the business process you will use for these Assignments, then begin by selecting one. E-mail your instructor and clearly describe the objective of this process, the participants, and the strategic significance for the company. The business process you select must have a clear beginning and an end, with identifiable, specific steps. Your instructor will confirm that the process you selected is suitable, or ask you to select another one.

For this Assignment, answer the following questions (use the subheadings/numbered questions below to organize your paper):

Question 1 – Establishing baselines

To begin with, list three metrics that you think can help you quantify the performance of the current process. List and define the metrics clearly, explain why each metric is important in the assessment of the process and then give an example of the statistic units. For example, if your metric is “speed of processing” it may be defined by how quickly each employee audits a tax form, and the example would be that “on average you would expect 8 tax forms audited per hour.” If you have already done this in a previous Assignment, you may copy and paste a summary from that Assignment.

Then, revisit the metrics that you selected for your baseline. For each metric, clearly discuss the following:

1) Describe what the metric is: how is it calculated and used currently?

2) As far as being used as a justifiable project goal, what kind of a change in this metric would constitute success? How did you arrive at this figure? If this target change figure is not possible to estimate now, then describe how you would

Unit 8 [MT400: Business Process Management]

compute it if you were actually carrying out this project: who would be involved and where would the data come from?

3) Examine the risks outlined in Table 21.2. Which is most likely to occur in this process revision? What actions would you take to address this risk? Be specific to your organization and selected process when addressing this; do not talk in generalities.

Question 2 – Case analysis

Read the following case study and answer the questions at the end.

In 2009 it was decided that ABC Tire Company would implement a BPM project with the following goals:

? Decrease the labor cost per tire and

? Increase profit from each tire sold by 5%.

To track the success (or failure) of the project they determined the following baseline data for 2009.

Total #	Materials	Labor	Average	Average
of Tires	Cost Per	Cost Per	Retail Price	Profit Per
Sold	Tire	Tire	Per Tire	Tire
22,594	$21.23	$12.67	$119.00	$85.10

After implementing the BPM project ABC Tire Company reviewed the value of the project after a year and identified the following information:

Total # of	Total Materials	Total Labor	Average Retail
Tires Sold	Cost	Cost	Price Per Tire
27,669	$533,450.00	$397,555.00	$122.13

Using the data provided above calculate and fill in the following table (show all your work; completing the table without the calculations will result in no credit):

Materials	Labor	Average	%	%	%
Cost Per	Cost	Profit	Increase	Increase	Increase
Tire	Per	Per Tire	or	or	or
	Tire		Decrease	Decrease	Decrease
			in	in Labor	in
			Materials	cost Per	Average
			cost Per	Tire	Profit Per
			Tire		Tire

Unit 8 [MT400: Business Process Management]

After the table is complete, address the following questions::

1. Why is it important to ensure that the baseline data is accurate?

2. Was the project successful? Why or why not?

Directions for Submitting Your Project

Compose your Assignment as a Microsoft Word document and save it as Username-MT400 - Assignment-Unit#.docx (Example: TAllen-MT400 Assignment-Unit 8.docx). Submit your file by selecting the Unit 8: Assignment Dropbox by the end of Unit 8.

Grading note:In the grading rubric below, you will see a section on analysis and criticalthinking. The points in this section will partly be based on your ability to apply the concepts discussed in your Assignment to the specific circumstances and details of the process/organization you selected. Writing in general terms without applying the concepts and analyzing your specific project may get you points for content section, but you will lose points in the analysis section.

Review the grading rubric below before beginning this activity.

Assignment grading rubric = 60 points

Unit 8 Assignment: Establishing Baselines and Assessing

Success

Assignment Requirements	Points	Points Earned
	Possible	by Students

Content, Focus, Use of Text and Research:

Selected and justified metrics to	0-15
be used for establishing a
baseline.
Calculated the correct values for	0-10
the table in question 2.
Answered the questions	0-5
correctly in question 2.

Unit 8 [MT400: Business Process Management]

Analysis and Critical Thinking

	Responses demonstrated critical	0-18
	thinking and analysis and
	exhibited application of
	information.
	Spelling, Grammar, APA Format
	Clear business writing. Spelling	0-12
	and grammar are acceptable.
	Effective use of APA. Followed
	the required format and
	instructions.
	Total		0-60