1. Operations Management BA 357 Work Assignment

2. BA 357 Work Assignment
A three-part set of exercises using data adapted from a composite of real companies:
Develop an annual demand forecast
Develop an annual sales & operations plan
Develop Master Production Schedules and Materials Requirements Plans to meet the annual operations plan
“…I think one way we could help students more would be by putting more hard work into developing a set of problems which would elucidate some of the ideas in the lectures. Problems give a good opportunity to fill out the material of the lectures and make more realistic, more complete, and more settled in the mind the ideas that have been exposed.”
Richard P. Feynman, Nobel laureate

3. Parts of the Assignment
1: Develop forecasts, using three different methods, for monthly demands for the next year given the previous actual demand for ten years and accounting for outside market influences.
2: Develop chase, level, and mixed aggregate plans (sales and operations plans) to meet the forecasted demand from Part 1, accounting for organizational constraints and goals.
3: Develop Master Production Schedules and Material Requirements Plans to satisfy the lowest-cost aggregate plan from Part 2 for the company’s two products.

4. Factors for Success – I
Format: Not following the requested format will result in up to 5 points off per part. The format aids both students in doing the work and the instructor in grading. It is also representative of general expectations for such work in industry.
On-time Submissions: Assignments are due in class on the posted dates. Late assignments will be marked off 5 points (<24 hours late) or 15 points (>24 hours late).
Organizational constraints and guidelines: Business solutions are often bounded by organizational limits such as warehouse size, production capacity, human resource concerns, regulations, etc. Points will be deducted for ignoring these factors in developing your answers.

5. Factors for Success – II
Solutions do not have “paint-by-the-number” examples in the text or lecture notes: You will not find examples of the requested solutions in the text or lectures where all a student has to do is plug in a different set of numbers from the assignment and recalculate. That is, do not expect an exact recipe somewhere The work assignment requires students to develop a new solution using a combination of tools and concepts that they should be familiar with from lecture notes, text reading, and homework problems There is more than one acceptable answer to each part of the assignment

6. Grading of the Assignment
25 points total for each part
20 points allotted to meeting the minimum requirements of each part. Minimum requirements will be defined for each part of the assignment
5 points allotted for contributions above the minimum requirements. The choice of such contributions is given to the student, but must be in support of and relevant to the major goal of the particular part.