Quality and productivity management
The final project is an opportunity to apply course concepts and to perform an in-depth analysis of operations strategy. The project is an operations strategy “comparison study.” Identify a pair of companies in the same (or similar) industry and compare their operations strategies. The paper will:
• Assess the current strengths and weaknesses of each company.
• Evaluate each company’s external environments (opportunities and threats)
• Contrast the operations strategies of the two companies, and examine the role that the implementation of lean principles might have played in defining these strategies.
• Discuss the long-term competitive strengths of each company and the role that operations play.
The paper should be 14-15 pages in length (double-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins on each side). Examples of company pairs might be: HP/Dell, Toyota/Honda, Starbucks/Peet’s Coffee , Fedex/ UPS, Fidelity/Vanguard, General Motors/Ford, etc.