Unit 6 Activity and Grading Rubric
In this activity, you will continue working on your operations management plan. As part of your continuing development of your operations management plan, you will discuss the goal of supply chain management and its application within your business.
Learning Outcome
Explain quality management, and apply quality management principles to continuous improvement in operations management.
Specifications:
- 2-3 page paper
- Created in a Word document
- Follows APA, 6th edition formatting
- Includes a Reference page for cited sources
Instructions: Continuing with your operations management plan, use at least 4 scholarly sources to write a 2–3 page paper that addresses the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award–Criteria for Performance Excellence. A link to the “Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram” is provided as an additional resource tool to help you design/develop your organization’s quality improvement plan.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology: “Criteria for Performance
Excellence”
Instructions: The link to the Criteria for Performance Excellence is found under “Popular Links” on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s homepage. Please review the criteria.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use on the webpage
linked above.
You may use the following information based off of the Baldrige Quality
Award Criteria as a guide for developing your responses for the paper’s
questions.
- Leadership: Who will serve in management/leadership
positions, and why? What qualities do these leaders and managers exhibit in
order to enhance the business? - Strategic Planning: Give a brief overview of how you
intend to use strategic planning as part of your operations management
process. - Customer Focus: What demographic(s) are you intending
to sell your product or service to, and why? - Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge
Management: What training or systems (i.e. performance appraisals,
drug testing, etc.) will you implement in your business to help ensure that
work is being performed at the level of quality you expect? - Workforce Focus: Where do you expect to recruit a
workforce from? How will you go about you recruiting process? - Operations Focus: Here, you want to offer a detailed
description as to how the operations process will flow within your
organization’s structure (i.e. how will you use your people,
equipment, or other assets you have as your core competencies in terms of
helping to ensure quality will be established and/or maintained within your
organization)? - Results: This criterion will require you to make a
forecast, or estimation, as you will not know how well the organization
performs until it has been put into operation. This section is optional to
complete.
For this paper, you are required to cover items 1-6, listed above.
Focus on how your operations plan will help to create and/or
generate process improvement as you manufacture your product or provide your
service (i.e. what things can you do along the way to help make your operations
create a better product or service?). You do not need to complete item 7
(optional, you may attempt to if you desire) of the criteria items as your plan
will not provide you with measurable results at this point.
Make sure to also address the following in your paper:
- Identify and assess whether or not your business will utilize
continuous improvement processes or procedures. Why or why not? - Discuss any continuous process improvement techniques other
organizations are using that you would use with your operations plan, and
explain why. - Using the “Fishbone Diagram” as a reference, choose three
elements to address in your paper. See the instructions in the reading
section below for more detail.
Reading: Hubpages: “Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram; Continuous Process
Improvement; Cause and Effect”
Link: Hubpages: “Ishikawa
Fishbone Diagram; Continuous Process Improvement; Cause and
Effect”
Instructions: Please review the website linked above for additional insight into creating continuous quality improvement. Using the “Fishbone Diagram” as a reference, select three of the following and discuss how you will use each to aid you in providing quality improvement as you manufacture your product or provide your service:
PDCA, the 5 Whys,
Tally
Sheets, Brainstorming
and Mind Mapping, Histograms
and Bar Charts, Pareto
Analysis, Process
Mapping, Value Stream
Mapping, or
Statistical Process Control (SPC) Charts.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the
webpages above.
Please score your paper or have a friend score your paper using the following “rubric,” or “scoring guide.” The levels will equate to the following letter grades:
4 = A; 3 = B; 2 = C; 1 = D; and 0 = F
| Level | Criterion |
| Research and Documentation (40%) | |
| 4 | Any research sources used should come from scholarly sources (i.e. textbooks, scholarly articles, etc.). This Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Unit 6 Activity and Grading Rubric” (PDF) Instructions: Please download the instructions for the requires that at least 4 sources are used. Any in-text |
| 3 | The paper uses at least three scholarly sources to support your content, but it does not meet the minimum requirement for 4 sources. |
| 2 | Three or more popular sources (i.e. newspapers, internet sites, magazines, etc.) make up a majority of the references to support your content. The paper lacks credible, scholarly sources and does not meet the minimum number of sources required. |
| 1 | The paper includes one or two sources. The paper lacks the use of credible, scholarly sources and may focus on using popular sources. The number of sources used does not meet the minimum requirement (4 sources) and the resources used may not fully support the content of your paper. |
| 0 | The paper fails to cite referenced sources, or does not include any research or sources to support ideas. The paper is based off of non-original content. |
| Analysis and Argument (40%) | |
| 4 | Your paper addresses the three questions in the instructions with the use of supporting evidence and specific details and explanation. You effectively address the following:Identify and assess whether or not your business will utilize continuous improvement processes or procedures. Why or why not? Discuss any continuous process improvement techniques other |
| 3 | The content addresses only some of the questions presented in the instructions section and reflects minimal original thought and /or critical analysis relative to the business. |
| 2 | The content is vague and is weakly supported by researched evidence. The essay lacks critical analysis relative to the business. |
| 1 | The content does not address the required elements; ideas presented are not supported by research or critical analysis. |
| 0 | There is a lack of critical analysis for the operation management plan, and/or the essay does not address the business content from the Unit 1 Activity. |
| Grammar/Style (15%) | |
| 4 | The content contains a maximum of two grammatical, citation, and punctuation errors. The ideas are concise and presented in a logical manner that is easy for the reader to follow. |
| 3 | The content contains three or four grammatical, citation, punctuation, and/or spelling errors. The sentence structure flows in a concise, logical manner. |
| 2 | The paper contains more than four grammatical, citation, punctuation and/or spelling errors that distract the reader from the comprehension of ideas being presented. |
| 1 | The paper demonstrates poor writing skills, reflected by lack of syntax and proper grammar, which makes ideas difficult to communicate. Ideas are not presented in a logical manner that is easy to follow. |
| 0 | The paper contains numerous grammatical, citation, punctuation, and/or spelling errors. |
| Format (5%) | |
| 4 | The paper should properly formatted (paragraph style, margins, etc.), using the APA Manual, 6th edition. The content is typed in MS Word format, labeled with the student’s name and the activity title/unit number, and a reference section to cite any outside sources used. |
| 3 | The paper meets most of the requirements for formatting, using the APA Manual, 6th edition, though may contain some errors. |
| 2 | The paper lacks proper formatting, based on the APA Manual, 6th edition, and it may use another style of formatting (i.e. MLA, Chicago, etc.). |
| 1 | The paper is typed in a format other than MS Word. A style of formatting other than APA may be used, or there are numerous formatting errors that distract the reader’s comprehension. |
| 0 | The formatting does not comply with the APA Manual, 6th edition and is not created in MS Word. |