Company: John Deere

Overview

In this second milestone assignment for the final project, you will continue the process of creating a business development plan for your selected organization or company. To accomplish this, you must understand how lean practices and continuous improvement throughout the organization, along with technological advancements, create product differentiation resulting in competitive advantage for the company.

Prompt

Determine strategies for reducing infrastructure costs through the use of lean manufacturing, just in time (JIT), optimized production technology (OPT), theory of constraints (TOC), and capacity constraint resources (CCR) to improve supply chain efficiency and logistics. What operations business strategy does the company use in producing its goods and/or services, and what continuous improvement techniques are used? What tools and metrics are used for forecasting customer demand? How does sustainability play a part in the delivery of goods and services?

To continue your analysis, you will need to gather information about lean practices and forecasting. Information can generally be found on the organizations main website, in the annual report and mission statement, and in articles authored by the company or outside analysts, such as ThomasNet.com, buy/sell sites (e.g., Jim Cramer), and investment companies (e.g., Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, or Vanguard). As operations management students and professionals, you are encouraged to use your own experience, understanding, and knowledge of business and industry structure to drive your analysis.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Lean Practices in the Workplace and the Supply Chain
   1. Determine opportunities for the company or organization to employ lean techniques to strengthen organizational performance while supporting current business operations. What is the potential outcome of using these lean techniques?
   2. Determine opportunities for the company or organization to use just-in-time (JIT) practices, such as safety stock, to reduce inventory costs while supporting current business operations. What is the potential outcome of using these JIT practices?
   3. Determine opportunities for the company or organization to use optimized production technology (OPT) and theory of constraints (TOC) principles to reduce costs and increase throughput while supporting current business operations. What is the potential outcome of using these OPT and TOC principles?

This analysis will be incorporated into the final project submission.