Ali Eteraz’s book – Children of the Dust

2.  Course Project Outline

General Information

With respect to other students in IEE 369, the Course Project is a required individual assignment, though it is expected you will collaborate with others at your sponsoring organization.  This project requires completing time studies and value stream maps as part of your effort to streamline a process of your choice.  During your Course Project it will be very important to generate value stream maps together, collaboratively, with others from your sponsoring organization.  In that sense, you should have a team, but the rest of your team will be folks from your sponsoring organization and not from this class.  For the Course Project deliverables, you will be the only author, and for the Course Project final presentation, you will be the only presenter.  You will find the detailed information you need to complete the course project and project deliverables in the lectures.  Please watch the lectures carefully.

Time Commitment

As is typical for IEE 7.5 week online courses, the total time commitment of this course requires approximately 135 hours, or approximately 18 hours per week.  On average, you should expect to invest 8 to 10 hours per week toward lectures, reading slides, and studying to prepare for exams.  You should anticipate dedicating another 8 to 10 hours per week toward your Course Project.

Analytical Framework

This course is about Lean Work Design.  We shall employ the same principles as our Six Sigma friends employ, “dmaic,” but we will expand this definition and apply this definition from a “time” viewpoint to the work place.  Our definition shall be:

• R – Recognizean opportunity at the enterprise level
• D – Definethe strategic implications of this opportunity for the enterprise
• d – definethe value stream with respect to Purpose, Viewpoint, and Context at the tactical/project level
• m – measurethe current work output using accepted principles and practices
• a – analyzethe opportunity and determine an improved Work Design approach
• i – improvethe opportunity by actually making the change happen
• c – controlthe change in order to insure it will be performed consistently after you depart
• S – Standardizethe change throughout the value stream at the enterprise level
• I – Integratethe thinking that went into this change into other opportunities related to this for the enterprise

Essentially, you are going to re-engineer a process by applying the tools you will learn in this course.  Thus, your project will follow an expanded definition process of “RDdmaicSI.”  Your project will address a fundamental opportunity that you have identified and will follow the RDdmaicSI process for the streamlining of the process and the Work Design redefinition of the process.  The project may relate to your place of employment, or a company or community organization near you, and it can relate to any kind of product or service — it is really only limited by your imagination and ability to execute your plan within the short time frame of this course.  It is expected that you will form a team with other members coming from your sponsoring organization, and that you will be the only student member on the team from this course (no household projects allowed; you must have a customer from a sponsoring organization of your choice).

Deliverables

• Week 2: D1 – a one page formal summary of the team members, the project name, the process being streamlined, and the P – V – C in Word format.  A second page using the IEE 369 Project Sponsor Form.docx , and signed by your sponsor.  You may scan a PDF of the signature page (Genius Scan is a free phone app that works well).  50 points.  Due by 03/25.
• Week 5:D2 – a well-written paper which includes formal should-be and as-is (current state) Value Stream Maps with Red Flags identified for the process being streamlined in the current state VSM.  A sign-off sheet using the IEE 369 Project VSM Review Form.docx , and signed by your sponsor acknowledging you have reviewed both VSMs with them.  You may scan a PDF of the signature page (Genius Scan is a free phone app that works well).  50 points.
• • PVC — regarding P, now may be an opportune time to decide if you need to narrow the scope of your project in order to meet the course timing or whether you need to sharpen the focus to be sure you are sufficiently addressing the chief task of eliminating unnecessary non-value added time from your selected process that you are streamlining (i.e., focusing on Lean Work Design); PVC can be duplicated from D1 if there was no feedback posted to your D1 assignment; if you did receive feedback, then you are encouraged to incorporate that feedback and may need to rework V and/or C.  Recall, the challenge for everyone’s project is the same:  delta T50%, delta C20%, and delta Q20%.
  • The analytical framework for the course project is RDdmaicSI.  By the time you submit D2 you are expected to be complete with the “RDdma” portion.  The body of your paper should adequately discuss each of R, D, d, m, and a.
  • VSMs — in the words of Dr. Shunk:  “do not submit a process flow diagram; if you submit a process flow diagram, then you will get hammered.”  The VSM must be either the Learning to See or the IDEF style.  The current state VSM must be fully populated and fully annotated with respect to your KPIs and must have red flags identified.  In the body of your report, you may include an image of the overall VSM and will need to copy and paste the regions surrounding the red flags when you discuss why those are red flags and the opportunity.  Your overall VSM will not likely be too readable when shrunk to fit on a single page inside your report, but you should size your pull-outs around the red flags to be large enough that the relevant information is readable in the written report.
  • The report is expected to be a professionally written document, with all tables, figures, graphs, etc., labeled per your choice of style convention (for example, APA), and correct in-text and end-of-paper citations for anything that is not your original work.  Prior to submitting D2, my suggestion is to review it with the Writing Center with one-on-one tutoring (it is free).  They are great at helping to give another set of eyes regarding grammar, style, etc.  Their appointments do fill up, so it is best to plan ahead. Due by  4/15.
• Week 8: D3 – a project presentation file which contains 15 to 20 slides is due by Tuesday, May 01