Establishing Baselines and Assessing Success

Unit 8 Assignment: Establishing Baselines and
Assessing Success
This Assignment will assess your knowledge based on the following outcomes:
MT400-5: Evaluate methods to implement and deliver benefits from a Business Process Management
(BPM) project.
GEL-8.03: Apply critical thinking to formulate a logical solution to a problem.
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. Email 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 will ask you to select another one.
For this Assignment, compose a paper that answers the following questions (use the
subheadings/numbered questions below to organize your paper):
Part 1: Implementation Strategies
You will use critical thinking to evaluate suitability of the four implementation strategies discussed in
step 2 for your project (big bang, parallel, relay, combination). You will then select the best fit and
describe how this implementation should be customized for your situation.
● For each of the four strategies, analyze the specific pros and cons of using it for your project. The
analysis should be based on how each strategy applies to the process you selected and the nature
of your selected organization. Do not simply repeat the generic pros/cons from the book. Evaluate
the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy and how these would manifest themselves for
your project.
● Select the one you think will work best in your situation. Justify your selection.
● Explain how you would design and execute this implementation strategy for your selected
process.
● What would be required for the success of this strategy when rolling out your revised process?
Part 2: Establishing Baselines
To begin, 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
Unit 8 [MT400] Page 2 of 3
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 eight 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 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 compute it if you were actually carrying out this
project: who would be involved and where would the data come from?
Part 3: 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 # of Tires
Sold
Materials Cost
Per Tire
Labor Cost Per
Tire
Average Retail
Price Per Tire
Average Profit
Per 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 Tires
Sold
Total Materials Cost Total Labor Cost Average Retail 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
Cost Per
Tire
Labor Cost
Per Tire
Average
Profit Per
Tire
% Increase or
Decrease in
Materials Cost
Per Tire
% Increase or
Decrease in
Labor Cost Per
Tire
% Increase or
Decrease in
Average Profit
Per Tire
(enter value) (enter value) (enter value) (enter value) (enter value) (enter value)
(enter value) (enter value) (enter value) (enter value) (enter value) (enter value)
Unit 8 [MT400] Page 3 of 3
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 Assignment
Compose your Assignment as a Microsoft Word document and save it as UsernameMT400-
Assignment-Unit#.docx (Example: TAllenMT400-Assignment-Unit8.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 critical thinking. 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 Assignment.
Unit 8 Assignment: Establishing Baselines and Assessing Success Points
Possible
Points
Earned
Content, Focus, Use of Text, and Research
Analyzed the pros and cons of all four implementation strategies with respect
to selected process and justified the best fit.
30
Selected and justified metrics to be used for establishing a baseline. 20
Calculated the correct values for the table in Part 3. 15
Answered the questions correctly in Part 3. 15
Analysis and Critical Thinking
Responses demonstrated critical thinking and analysis and exhibited
application of information.
20
Spelling, Grammar, APA Format
Clear business writing; spelling and grammar acceptable; effective use of
APA; followed the required format and instructions.
20
Total 120