Current Vehicle Maintenance Process

 

 

BA 270– Assignment # 2

 

 

Note:

• Please ensure that you read, understand and follow comments regarding ‘group work and academic honesty’ listed on page 4 of this document and academic integrity related comments in the syllabus. Not reading or understanding these comments will NOT be a valid excuse.  Ensure you talk to the instructor in a timely manner if you need additional clarification or guidance on the academic integrity related comments.
• This assignment is expected to be about 10% of the course grade.
• Answers can be submitted as a group (max of three students in a group – no exceptions please).
• If you are unable to submit the assignment by the due date mentioned above, you can have few additional days to submit the assignment. There will be no late penalty points imposed if you submit the assignment by the start of the BA270 exam.  After that, there is a 10% penalty for each day of late submission.
• This assignment will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis. “Pass” Criteria: Follow all instructions and score at least 85%.  See the self-assessment rubric for this assignment.

 

Objective: Apply ‘activity diagram modeling’ to the car-rental scenario described in assignment 1.  The goal is to illustrate the current vehicle maintenance process, and a re-engineered improved process with the help of activity diagrams.

 

Deliverables: Submit hard copy of a three-page MS Word document that includes the following:

1. A title page with no page number (See page 3 for additional requirements on title page).
2. A brief introduction that reads exactly as follows.  You can copy and paste these three sentences without the quotes:“This assignment report includes two activity diagrams.  Figure 1 outlines the current vehicle maintenance process for the car rental scenario.  Figure 2 illustrates the improved vehicle maintenance process”.
3. Use Microsoft Visio to model the current process described in the car rental scenario as an activity diagram.  Label this diagram as: “Figure 1 – Current Vehicle Maintenance Process” (without the quotes).  Insert this diagram as a .JPG fileinto page 1 (body of your MS Word assignment 2 report)below the brief introduction mentioned in deliverable # 2.  Try to fit the introduction (see deliverable number 2 above) and figure 1 on the same page.  Ensure that Figure 1 captures key content from all the paragraphs of the car rental scenario.

Assume that the Management team at the car rental place wishes to re-engineer and improve the current processing of car complaints.

1. Use Microsoft Visio to create an activity diagram that illustrates the re-engineered improved process.  Label this diagram as: “Figure 2 – Improved Vehicle Maintenance Process” (without the quotes).  Insert this diagram as a .JPG file into page 2 (body of your MS Word assignment report).  Note that reports usually do not end in a diagram.  We are making an exception here since the focus is on creating activity diagrams using Visio.

Some process re-engineering suggestions from the Management team follow.

 

Management’s suggestions for re-engineering current process:

• Remove the Computer Data Entry Personnel (CDEP) and one or two other human actors (e.g., manager and/or assistant manager) from the process.
• Ensure that no changes are made to OCI because customers are used to working with OCI.
• Eliminate paper copies (only exception is that mechanics can work with paper copies).
• Do not send complaints via e-mail or as e-mail attachments. Instead, we recommend including “auto-alerts” for an actor to process complaint(s).  It is hard to keep track of complaints in e-mails and e-mail attachments, especially after several weeks, months or years.  Note that auto-alerts are sent from an IS actor to human actor(s) or other IS actor(s).
• Currently, there is not much work for the Maintenance Manager in this process, although this is a car maintenance process. Assign more relevant work to the Maintenance Manager in this car maintenance process.  For example:
  • They could meet with the mechanics when needed.
  • Assuming that the Maintenance Manager has good communication skills, they could send a thank you note and/or discount coupons to the customer after job completion.
  • The Maintenance Manager could do a secondary review of complaints rejected by an IS actor as non-maintenance complaint. This way, a customer’s complaint that is rejected by an IS actor is reviewed again by a human actor (e.g., Maintenance Manager).  After the secondary review, the Maintenance Manager could inform customers about next steps if the Maintenance Manager also classifies the complaint(s) as non-maintenance complaint(s).
• Note that the customer receiving this update or a thank you note could be the last step in the process. This way, the process starts and ends with the customer.
• Introduce a new actor called “IS”. (For an example on the use of an “IS” actor, see second activity diagram of OSU Cat I process from the class lecture (Process Modeling – Parts 2-4 PPT slides).  When referring to this diagram, be cautious.  Recall that the diagram has arrows going upwards, which is NOT allowed in an activity diagram (and hence NOT allowed for Assignment-2).  In other words, ensure that your activity diagrams do not have arrows go up).
  • The “IS” actor could be included as the third or fourth column (need not be the last column) in the re-engineered process.
  • In order to separate the maintenance and non-maintenance complaints, the “IS” actor can automatically review the complaints using the manual, and then classify the complaints.
    • If this suggestion is implemented, the Management team wants to ensure that the non-maintenance complaints are reviewed next by a human actor (e.g., Maintenance Manager or Assistant Manager) before a final decision is made about taking a complaint out of the maintenance process.
  • The “IS” actor can ‘auto re-format’ complaints so that a ‘manual re-format’ is not necessary. This re-format is to enable reading the complaints, without a human actor having to input the complaints.  Manual inputs are likely to be slower, and likely to introduce more errors, when compared to an auto-reformat.
  • The “IS” actor can serve as a repository of e-copies of reformatted, and/or reviewed maintenance and non-maintenance complaints.
  • The “IS” actor can send an “alert” to relevant actors at different times. Upon receipt of such alerts, the other actor(s) can then retrieve the e-copy of the re-formatted complaints previously stored in the “IS” column, and process the complaint.

Instructions for using Visio (for creating activity diagrams) are available in the ‘Process Analysis and Modeling’ module (See Visio Lab) on Canvas.  This document with Visio instructions also includes comments on a free download of Microsoft Visio software for home use.

Additional requirements for the report follow.

 

Requirements relating to Title (Cover) Page: Include a separate title page that includes:

• Course number (i.e., BA270), Section number (i.e., 003), Course name (i.e., Business Process Management), Instructor name (i.e., Dr. Raja), and Submission date.
• Assignment # and Title (i.e., “Assignment 2: Activity Diagrams”)
• The first and last names of all team members (with correct spellings). Names must not be hand-written, and must NOT be added after submission is made to the instructor.  It is each student’s responsibility to ensure that team members have included names of all team members prior to assignment submission.
• The title page must NOT contain any answers.
• The title page must NOThave a page number. (First page with introduction and activity diagram of current vehicle maintenance process is page 1).
• The reverse side of the title page must be empty so that grader can write their comments.

 

Other formatting requirements for the report:

• The assignment must be stapled before submission.  (Please do not expect that a stapler will be available in class at the time of submission).
• Staple your assignment answers in the correct page sequence, with the title page on top.  Staple position is typically left corner for most professional reports.
• Ensure that page 1 is the page with the introduction and Figure 1.
• There should be no hand-written text or hand drawing in your report.
• The typed text inside the symbols must be legible to the grader.  Note that Visio uses 8 font size as default.  This font size will have to be enlarged to about 14 size in Visio to make the text legible to the grader.
• Use at least half-inch margins for your 3-page MS Word report.
• The picture quality must be sharp and easy to read.  (So after insertion of picture as a JPG image in MS Word, right click on the picture, and format it to increase picture sharpness to 100%).
• Recall that the actors are listed on the x-axis, and the y-axis of the activity diagram represents the timeline.  (So, your diagram must NOT have any arrows going in the upward direction).

 

Some comments relating to group work and academic honesty, and some closing remarks follow.

Some comments regarding ‘Group Work and Academic Honesty:

• You can work in a group (Maximum of three members per group – no exceptions please).
• Provide sufficient lead time for your team members to review final submission.  Ensure that all your group members have reviewed the report before final submission.
• If you work in a group, then you must ensure that you submit your answers as a group, and NOT as an individual.

• Do not assume that your partner(s) would have included your name on the cover sheet. Each team member must check if the cover sheet has their names on the title sheet before assignment submission.  Names cannot be added after report has been submitted to instructor.
• If you use someone’s help or their work, acknowledge them, and specify what help you received. Submit a copy of their work and your work so that the grader can identify the difference between their work and your work.

• Note that your report must have the original work of your group and not include work copied from some other individual or group.  If a member is repeating the class, a replica of their work from a previous term is NOT allowed.
• Every group member must retain an e-copy of their group’s assignment submission for their reference and records until one week after grades are posted after finals week.  If there is any dispute about the grades, or if the grader misses your assignment, each group member must have their own e-copy of the assignment submission to be eligible for a re-submission.  E-copy of Visio diagram, JPEG file and Word document of assignment-2 submission must be saved by each team member separately for later access if needed.

 

Closing Remarks:

• Remember to save the diagrams as both Visio diagrams and JPEG diagrams. Remember to select the entire image before saving it.
• The grader expects to see a three-page report (including the title page), with the reverse side of the title page left blank.The grader may require considerable lead time (at least one week) to post assignment scores on Canvas.
• If you score 85% or above at first attempt, you will receive full credit (i.e., 100%). If you receive a score that is less than 85%, you willreceive a ‘0’ score initially.  If you submitted original work, and made a first reasonable attempt, you will get one more chance to re-do the assignment.  If you receive a ‘0’ score, you are strongly encouraged to check with the instructor about feedback comments on first submission.  In order to be fair to students who did a good job in their first submission, the maximum score one can receive in the second attempt is 90%.
• If you have questions, talk to the instructor at least 72 hours before due date. Note that there will be significant penalty points for not following instructions or for incorrect submissions.  Check out the detailed self-assessment rubric for this assignment before yousubmit your report.