Constraint Management and System Optimization

Overview
In this Work Product Assessment, you will imagine that you are a paid consultant hired to evaluate and resolve a systemic organizational performance problem. You will use the book The Goal to help you construct an integrated and documented analysis. It is important that your analysis is clear and cogent in explaining the root causes of the problems, using concepts from the text and documents provided (and other relevant concepts) to support your argument.
Professional Skills: Written Communication and Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are assessed in this Competency. You are strongly encouraged to use the Academic Writing Expectations Checklist when completing this Assessment.
Your response to this Assessment should:
• Reflect the criteria provided in the Rubric.
• Adhere to the required length.
• Conform to APA style guidelines. You may use Walden Writing Center’s APA Course Paper Template.
This Assessment requires submission of one file. Save your file as SP005_ firstinitial_lastname (for example, SP005_ J_Smith). When you are ready to upload your completed Assessment, use the Assessment tab on the top navigation menu
Instructions
Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the assessor will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.
Access the following to complete this Assessment:
• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
• Applying Process Tools & Frameworks to Improve Organizational Performance: A TOC Primer
• Three-Questions Accounting
• Academic Writing Expectations Checklist
This assessment has two-parts. Click each of the items below to complete this assessment.
Part I: Diagnosing Organization-Wide Performance Issues
A. Read the three documents included with this Assessment as follows:
o Read the entire The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement text and make detailed notes.
o Read the “Applying Process Tools & Frameworks to Improve Organizational Performance: A TOC Primer” document, as you read through The Goal text, to help you focus on fundamental concepts.
o Read the “Three-Questions Accounting” document after reading The Goal text.
B. After reading and note taking, complete the following:
1. Choose an organization with which you are very familiar with. It could be where you work now or have worked in the past. Provide some basic details about the organization. At minimum, the basic details should include: the industry and products/services the organization offers, the overall operational and financial health of the organization, and a qualitative or systems diagram summary of how the organization operates to fulfill its commitments to customers. (approximately 200 words)
Note: If you have chosen a private organization you must disguise the names of the organization and the people associated with it.
2. Choose a minimum of six specific passages from the book The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement that contain an essential idea or concept that you found compelling and that offer insights related to systemic problems in your organization. Provide these passages making sure to quote and use citations for each. Construct a well-reasoned argument for why you chose each passage and how each selected passage relates to your organization in terms of helping you diagnose organization-wide performance issues. Be specific and be sure to support your response with appropriate concepts from performance management and/or systems thinking. (approximately 400 words)
C. Respond to the following questions. Remember to make specific reference to concepts from the documents and other relevant resources to support your reasoning.
0. In your own organization what do you believe are the fundamental physical, policy, or market constraints that are preventing your organization from moving to the next level of performance? Be sure to clearly identify each primary constraint and provide a detailed argument and evidence for why you think each is a primary constraint to organizational performance. Be sure to support your response with appropriate concepts from performance management and/or systems thinking. (minimum of 400 words).
1. What do you believe are the root causes of these primary constraints? Why? Be sure to support your response with appropriate concepts from performance management and/or systems thinking. (approximately 200–300 words)
Part II: Developing Solutions to Organization-Wide Performance Issues
A. Review your responses to Part 1.
B. Refer to all the three documents included with this Assessment, and to other relevant organizational-improvement knowledge as needed and complete the following.
1. For each of the minimum of six specific passages from the book The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvementthat you chose in Part 1, provide an argument for how the passage helps you in developing potential solutions to organization-wide performance issues? What are potential solutions relative to the concepts you identified? Be specific. (approximately 400 words).
2. Respond to the following prompts. Remember to make specific reference to concepts from the document resources and other relevant resources to support your reasoning.
a. For each of the fundamental physical, policy, or market constraints that you identified as preventing your organization from moving to the next level of performance, provide a specific recommendation for how to elevate, support, and potentially eliminate the constraint. (approximately 400 words).
b. Provide an overall argument as to how and why your recommendations address the root causes of the organization-wide performance issues you identified. (approximately 300 words).
c. Using concepts from the Corbett document, “Three-Questions Accounting,” and associated resources related to metrics and TOC accounting measurements for each of your recommendations, show how the primary metrics of T, I, and OE would be affected and why the recommendations would make sense from a performance measurement perspective.