Comprehensive Case Study Details

Please find below the details for completing your comprehensive case study.

Assignment Description:

This assignment introduces a “real-time” aspect in case analysis by requiring that students use a current business situation as the basis for their learning. You will be actively engaged in creating your own case study within the context of your real-world experiences. You will find that problem-based case development heightens the recognition that there are no pre-determined “correct” answers in most authentic business scenarios; however, it heightens the recognition of issues and potential solutions.

Empowering you to create solutions to your own case study not only increases your motivation and engagement in learning but also, for a moment in time, gives you the potential to have an observable and measurable impact on your employer without the associated risks. However, if your business situation experience becomes “reality” revisited for some future employer, then you have, perhaps, a number of potential solutions!

Given that this is a new experience for 410 students, the following guidelines serve as a way for you to complete this assignment; and I encourage you to read it in its entirety so that you get a sense of what must be done to ensure your success.

 

 

 

MGT 410

Production and Operations Management

Problem-Based Case Development

Guidelines and Steps

 

Course/Problematic Situation Matching

  • Identify a problematic situation that you have or are currently experiencing at work and recreate the problematic situation with as much detail as you can recall as the first step in your learning experience.
  • Currently we are short staffed in the medical supply company that I work with. We have 1 billing associate, 1 collections associate, 3 customer service associates, and 1 manager. We have 3 locations in Michigan (Troy, Washington, and Pontiac).
  • The location in Troy is the headquarters and they take a majority of the phone calls and new patient referrals. They have only 1 person doing customer service. This is too much for just 1 person to handle.
  • The location in Pontiac is located in a hospital. This location has only 1 customer service person. This person is tasked with doing orders received from case managers, helping walk ins, and delivering equipment to patient rooms.
  • The location in Washington is a free-standing location. There is 1 customer service person. This location is idle 90% of the time and the customer service person there has a lot of down time.
  • Being short staffed is causing the billing to fall behind because there is not enough time for the customer service associates to do their job properly. Rushing and pushing paperwork through so that it can be billed out is causing a lot of errors and rejections.
  • There is high employee turn-over at the Pontiac location.
  • Employees take a lot of time off forcing coverage from other locations. The customer service person filling in falls behind in their own work.
  • The management does not manage (family member is manager)
  • If you find it easier to recreate the details of your problematic situation using the names of real people, events, documents, and companies, please make sure that you change all names, at the appropriate time defined by you, so that anonymity is assured. Anonymity MUST be assured when you finalize your Case Scenario below.

 

 

From Problematic Situation to Case Scenario

  • Identify the major topic(s) of your Operations Management course your problematic situation focuses on in the context for your learning.
    • Learning Curve
      • Individual Learning
      • Organizational Learning
    • Process Analysis
      • Process flowcharting
    • Job Design
      • Behavioral considerations in job design
        • Specialization of labor
        • Job enrichment
      • Work measurements and standards
    • Statistical quality control
    • Work center scheduling
  • Rewrite your problematic situation as a case study by beginning your narration with the major OM areas behind the situation in your case.  Once your opening statement of your case scenario is completed, complete your case scenario with the details of your problematic situation created above. Please make sure that all names, events, documents, and companies are hypothetical.

With your case scenario, your goal, now, is to achieve a deeper understanding of the problem(s) raised in your case. To accomplish this, you begin with a problem analysis.

Problem Analysis

Based on the facts presented in your case, create 3-4 questions that you feel need to be asked to help solve the problems generated in your case scenario. These generally are initiated by assumptions you make after reading your case scenario. One suggestion is to have your friends read your case, ask them what they perceive to be the problems/issues, and what questions would they ask that would help towards solving those problems/issues. For example, one question could be, “What conditions must be met to reach an acceptable resolution?”

  • Finalize and prioritize your questions, which become an essential component to your case scenario.

You are now in a position of building solutions and your reflective learning skills.

Building and Implementing Solutions

  • Review primary source documents, Internet sites and search results, and content-related periodicals and books to answer your case scenario questions.
  • As in the business world, your research stops when you have enough information to begin proposing solutions. This may include identifying gaps and addressing missing information or perspectives.
  • Now, it’s time to decide what solution(s) you will propose that addresses your case scenario problems and questions. Please review and evaluate why you chose the solution you did in your case. In essence, explain the reasoning behind your identified problem and solution(s).
    • Implement a training program for all new employees.
    • Cross train every employee so that if someone is not available anyone can help.
    • Close the location in Washington (this store loses $20,000 a month)
    • Move employees to accommodate other busier locations. Closing the location will assist in coverage for vacations and sick time.
    • Change hours for core employees to increase revenue and productivity
    • Hire someone to be supervisor that will run the locations under the manager.
  • Next, although not all inclusive,
    • Evaluate which, if any, your proposed solutions might be implemented by your former or current employer to address their problematic situation(s);
    • Determine how you could have been involved in your solution’s implementation;
    • Recommend changes in company policies, organization and/or department culture, attitudes, etc.; and
    • How your employer should address future problematic situations
    • Other?
  • Include APA in-text citations in supporting the ideas of others, where appropriate

Reflective Learning

  • Reflect on what you have learned and how did your case scenario support your learning?