MAN 4584 – Process Improvement Methodologies Assignment Series Project Week 2 - Assignment 1 This week students need to select a process improvement project to work on during this course. There are four parts to this mini-project that students will do throughout this course (read all four parts due Week 2, 4, 6, and 8 before continuing with this assignment to understand how this breaks down in the coming weeks, in the Course Materials there is a file with all 4 parts to easily print, link). Students may select something at work (i.e. a process or quality issue that can be pursued to help grow your career) or it may be something that will simply make your life easier at home (i.e. getting ready in the morning/evening for work, cooking a meal, etc.). 1. Select One Process to Map - Do not pick a huge project as we have a limited amount of time in this class. Do not pick a process that you have no control over as you will be required to implement at least one improvement or change to the process during this course. If your become overwhelmed in this part of the project with defining the process you select, you should consider reducing the scope to a smaller project. This course requires students to learn and apply the methodologies in the lessons to define, analyze, and improve the process they select. So be sure that you have the fundamental knowledge needed on the process selected so you can focus on evaluating how to apply the lessons and methodologies as required to the project. 2. Assign Ownership and Roles - While this is an individual project, you will need to get family, co-workers, or other stakeholders in the process involved to support you with completing these assignments. Make sure everyone knows and approves of what you are going to do for your improvement project and when you will need to finish the various parts of this project. Make sure they understand that there are specific steps you have to follow to meet your course requirements on this project and that you will also need their support to provide you with input in order to complete the assignments. 3. Analyze Process Boundaries – Identify where the selected process starts and stops, as well as other processes that interface with this process. Make sure you clearly understand your process boundaries or limitations for this improvement project. 4. Map Process - Select any of the mapping tools covered in your textbook, supplemental articles, or lecture in the Week 2 lesson. This map of your selected process should be detailed enough that others could follow your process and have the same result or output as you. a. Identify the outputs and customers for the process. b. Identify inputs and suppliers for the process. c. Map the tasks and decisions needed to transform the inputs into the outputs for the process. d. Define customer expectations for performance for this process (translate these goals and o ...

1. MAN 4584 – Process Improvement Methodologies
Assignment Series Project
Week 2 - Assignment 1
This week students need to select a process improvement
project to work on during this course. There are four
parts to this mini-project that students will do throughout this
course (read all four parts due Week 2, 4, 6, and 8
before continuing with this assignment to understand how this
breaks down in the coming weeks, in the Course
Materials there is a file with all 4 parts to easily print, link).
Students may select something at work (i.e. a
process or quality issue that can be pursued to help grow your
career) or it may be something that will simply
make your life easier at home (i.e. getting ready in the
morning/evening for work, cooking a meal, etc.).
1. Select One Process to Map - Do not pick a huge project as we
have a limited amount of time in this class.
Do not pick a process that you have no control over as you will
be required to implement at least one

2. improvement or change to the process during this course. If
your become overwhelmed in this part of the
project with defining the process you select, you should
consider reducing the scope to a smaller project.
This course requires students to learn and apply the
methodologies in the lessons to define, analyze, and
improve the process they select. So be sure that you have the
fundamental knowledge needed on the
process selected so you can focus on evaluating how to apply
the lessons and methodologies as required to
the project.
2. Assign Ownership and Roles - While this is an individual
project, you will need to get family, co-workers,
or other stakeholders in the process involved to support you
with completing these assignments. Make sure
everyone knows and approves of what you are going to do for
your improvement project and when you will
need to finish the various parts of this project. Make sure they
understand that there are specific steps you
have to follow to meet your course requirements on this project
and that you will also need their support to
provide you with input in order to complete the assignments.
3. Analyze Process Boundaries – Identify where the selected
process starts and stops, as well as other
processes that interface with this process. Make sure you clearly

3. understand your process boundaries or
limitations for this improvement project.
4. Map Process - Select any of the mapping tools covered in
your textbook, supplemental articles, or lecture
in the Week 2 lesson. This map of your selected process should
be detailed enough that others could follow
your process and have the same result or output as you.
a. Identify the outputs and customers for the process.
b. Identify inputs and suppliers for the process.
c. Map the tasks and decisions needed to transform the inputs
into the outputs for the process.
d. Define customer expectations for performance for this
process (translate these goals and objectives into
measureable metrics for the process). Include what the current
metrics or measures of performance are
operating at for this process. Students must have at least 3
metrics or measures for their process.
5. Verify Accuracy - Walk through the process definition, map,
and metrics with other process owners or
stakeholders relative to your selected process. Explain how this
process was verified and updated from their
feedback.
6. Identify Lessons Learned - Include challenges and
experiences while doing this assignment. Generalize
what you learned for use in later process improvement projects.

4. Submit Assignment 1 on Sunday at end of Week 2 by 11:55 PM
(EST). This submission should be in APA
format with all references cited appropriately (please see
example paper (link), further examples are in the
lesson action items). Some frequently asked questions (link)
and grading rubrics (link) for this assignment are
included in the Course Materials.
Week 3 and 4 - Assignment 2
This week students need to take the process improvement
project defined in Week 2 and analyze that process
for waste or non-value added activities.
1. Waste Audit – Review the online lecture and pg. 12-15 in The
Lean Pocket Handbook for Kaizen Events.
After completing this with textbook and supplemental article
readings, you should have sufficient
knowledge to critically identify wastes in your defined process.
Challenge your current thinking about the
process when analyzing potential issues (see waste you never
quite saw before, target 3 per category).

5. 2. Analyze a Waste - Select any of the process analysis tools
covered in your textbook, supplemental
articles, or lecture in the Week 4 lesson to further evaluate the
process for a critical waste or issues
discovered in the audit.
3. Review Audit – Review the results of this assignment with
other process owners or stakeholders as
identified in Assignment 1. Get their feedback and input into
your Waste Audit and Analysis (update step 1
and 2 above from this input). Explain how this review was
completed.
4. Identify Lessons Learned - Include challenges and
experiences faced in doing this assignment. Generalize
what you learned for use in later process improvement projects.
Submit Assignment 2 on Sunday at end of Week 4 by 11:55 PM
(EST). This submission should use the
following template (it includes a waste audit table and room to
add the other steps, link). Some frequently asked
questions (link) and grading rubrics (link) for this assignment
are included in the Course Materials.
Week 5 and 6 - Assignment 3
Students should NOT procrastinate on this part of the project as
students need to plan a mini-kaizen event for

6. the process documented in Week 2 (Assignment 1) based upon
their analysis in Week 4 (Assignment 2).
1. Improvement Project (Kaizen Event) – This kaizen event or
improvement project does not need to
address all issues found in Assignment 2, but students are
expected to coordinate and implement at least one
kaizen or improvement to this process to tackle some of issues
analyzed in Assignment 2. Follow this
template to document this mini-kaizen event (link). This
template includes some example entries to help
students understand how to use it, as well as state a kaizen
objective, ideal conditions, brainstorming
potential actions (apply the lessons to this project), and prepare
an implementation plan for this mini-kaizen
event. Students should follow the steps on this template and
edit the entries to support their own
improvement project using this template (the action items from
the course lessons provide further
information to support this assignment).
Assignment 4 for additional improvements (beyond
the scope of this class). While brainstorming improvement
alternatives now some options may not fit
this time period, but be good considerations for Assignment 4.
2. Review Impact – Students need to plan enough time to

7. complete this kaizen event or improvement project
in order to have time to measure the impact the improvement(s)
had on the 3 process measures defined in
Assignment 1. These 3 future metrics or measures should
clearly show the impact these changes or
improvements had on the performance of this process. Students
need to structure 3 impact statements
supporting these measures (see example on the template).
3. Identify Lessons Learned - Include challenges and
experiences while doing this assignment. Generalize
what you learned for use in later process improvement projects.
Submit Assignment 3 on Sunday at end of Week 6 by 11:55 PM
(EST). This submission should use the
template provided (if students need to change the format to fit
the organization, you are free to use a different
format as long as similar steps as on the template are included).
Some frequently asked questions (link) and
grading rubrics (link) for this assignment are included in the
Course Materials.
Week 7 and 8 - Assignment 4

8. This week students need to develop a master improvement plan
and review plan for the process defined in
Week 2, analyzed in Week 4, and incrementally improved in
Week 6.
1. Master Improvement Plan – **Review the Week 7 online
lecture example** and develop a master kaizen
or improvement plan for your process using the template
provided (link). The Week 7 online lecture will
help you understand how to complete and use this tool for your
improvement project. Focus on longer term
milestones and tasks (beyond this class) needed to support the
original goals and objectives you defined in
Week 2. Additionally base your future milestones and tasks
upon the various improvement tools examined
in the Week 5 and 6 lessons that are used to eliminate waste as
analyzed in Week 4.
2. Review Plan - Students had to coordinate and implement
one kaizen or improvement project in Week 6 for
this process. This review plan template is on the same file as
the master improvement plan. The Week 7
online lecture will help you understand how to complete and use
this tool for your improvement project.
Students should review the improvements completed in Week 6
and plan further review plan needs (beyond

9. this class).
3. Persuasive Speech – Students need to record a persuasive
speech using the SPOC Video Drop Box Tool
(located under these instructions in the Week 8 lesson,
maximum of 10 minutes, blended students may do
this at the Week 8 class meeting). Students should roll play
that they are presenting their Master
Improvement Plan and Review Plan to their process owners or
stakeholder asking for their future support
for these recommendations. Students need to apply their public
speaking skills and clearly demonstrate to
this audience why they should support these further plans.
4. Identify Lessons Learned - Include challenges and
experiences while doing this assignment. Generalize
what you learned for use in later process improvement projects.
This template includes a box to enter this
step at the bottom of each plan (tailor for each criterion).
Submit Assignment 4 on Tuesday of Week 8 by 11:55 PM
(EST). This submission should use the template
provided (there are two separate spreadsheets on the same file
for criteria 1 and 2). Students may change the
format to fit their project or employer needs, as long as similar
steps as on the template are included. Some

10. frequently asked questions (link) and grading rubrics (link) for
this assignment are included in the Course
Materials.
Running head: TEXTBOOK ORDERING: 1
MAN 4584 – Assignment 1
Mary Smith
St. Petersburg College
This assignment will define the current process used to order
textbooks for courses at St.
Petersburg College. This definition will include a description of
stakeholders or process owners,
as well as the boundaries this process must follow. Then a
SIPOC diagram will be provided on
the current process to identify “all relevant elements of a
process improvement project before
work begins” (iSix Sigma, n.d.). Further key measures or
indicators of this process will also be
provided on current performance. As well as lessons learned

11. while doing this assignment.
Ownership and Roles
There are five key stakeholders or process owners associated
with textbook ordering for St.
Petersburg College courses:
• Students: The student’s role is to be able to read the textbook
to support learning their lessons in
the course. Ideally the textbook should be at a level the student
can understand and can afford,
along with being readily available for the timely start of class.
• Organizations: Students fundamentally earn college degrees to
support growing careers in
organizations students will work (if working for others) or start
(if self-employed as an
entrepreneurs or small business owners). Ideally the lessons
students learn should support the
program needs for the College of Business (St. Petersburg
College, n.d.c.). Additionally an
advanced college degree should help students prepare for
success in practicing the course content
in these organizations so they may be more productive and
competitive in today’s dynamic and
global market (Wise Geek, n.d.).

12. • Faculty: The faculty’s role is to help the students learn the
subject content associated with the
course. This typically requires identifying and requiring a
textbook associated with that subject
Running head: TEXTBOOK ORDERING: 2
for the lessons. Other action items need to be prepared for the
lessons that use the textbook
specified in their syllabus and assure students are learning the
objectives for the course.
• Bookstore: All textbook requirements for courses are to be
adopted by the semester prior the
course offering. The campus bookstore is the policy standard to
be used for each course. While
students always have the option to purchase, rent, borrow,
online, etc. textbooks outside the
campus bookstore, it is up to the students to plan the necessary
time and needs accordingly.
• Publishers: Their role is to work with authors that are subject
matter expects in the field
associated in order to prepare and publish a textbook to meet
academic needs.

13. The following stakeholder map in Figure 1 illustrates how these
relationships are further
inter-related and needed to support college course development
and offering needs.
Figure 1. Stakeholders
Process Boundaries
This process definition will start at the point in which faculty
need to evaluate textbook
options from different publishers in order to develop the lessons
for a new course to meet curriculum
needs. It will end with student and organization feedback on the
course after the initial course design
is developed and beta tested from its first offering. Other
process interfaces or rules that are
boundaries (Andersen, 2007) to understand and enable this
process include:
1. The course must meet the curriculum and instruction (C&I)
requirements defined and approved
by the State of Florida for the degrees in which the course it
taught.

14. Organizations
Experts - Prevalent
Practices and
Theories
Faculty
Publisher
Bookstore Students
Running head: TEXTBOOK ORDERING: 3
2. The textbook must be available through the publisher to
support the course offering, as well as
the curriculum and instruction needs.
3. The textbook must have a book adoption form done the
semester prior the first new course
offering so the bookstore can acquire and stock for students
(especially on financial aid). This
must follow board rules P3/PC 912 and P5/P5 071 (St.
Petersburg College, n.d.a.).
4. Academic requirements and rigor recommend that lessons in
an 8 week modmester plan 12-15

15. hours of course work each week to enable students to master at
least 70% of the learning
objectives for the course (St. Petersburg College, n.d.b.).
5. The course lessons must be reviewed and approved by a
faculty peer group that includes
organizational feedback (i.e. from the college advisory board).
6. The book must fit the level of students in an upper division
college course.
7. Affordability considerations regarding options and stocking
decisions is encouraged.
8. Further materials from the publisher to support actions items
in the lessons are encouraged.
9. Faculty has the academic freedom to design the lessons to
achieve the learning objectives.
10. Course must be designed to support both blended and online
delivery of credited courses.
Map Process
The process in which textbooks are evaluated, ordered, and
reviewed for new courses is
visually mapped in Figure 2. This process map illustrates the
current state or as-is methods used for
this process (Andersen, 2007). This process, up until the point
of a new course being taught once,

16. needs to be completed before the start of the semester prior a
new course starting (to support
bookstore adoption needs). Any analysis or recommendations
for improvements on this process will
be conducted in other interdependent processes outside this
assignment.
Running head: TEXTBOOK ORDERING: 4
Suppliers Inputs Outputs Customers
Organizations Career Opportunities Price Students
Knowledge & Skills
for Needed Positions
Availability (source
options & dates)
Study/Read
Faculty/Dean
Curriullum &
Instruction (C&I) Financial Aid

17. SPC Administration Book Adoption Form Course Design
Instructor/Faculty
Learning Objectives
Bookstore(s) Mark-up/Profit Action Items
Options: New, Used,
Rent, Online, Library
Advisory Board Organizations &
Publishers ISBN Faculty Peers Faculty
Cost Review & Approve
Instructor Manual
Layout
Supplements
Content
Authors Problems/Cases
Theories/Examples
Process
Evaluate
Textbook
Options
(1 to 3
months)

18. Fit
C&I
(<1 day)
Complete
Book Adoption
Form
(< 5 min.)
Bookstore(s)
Obtain
Textbook
(1 to 2 weeks)
Inventory
Textbook
Yes
No
Course
Developed
(new or update)
(1 to 3 months)
Course
Offered
(8 to 16
weeks)

19. Course
Evaluated
(30 to 45 min.)
Improve-
ments
Needed?
Yes-Other Text
No-Same Text
Figure 2. SIPOC Diagram
As illustrated on the SIPOC diagram, some key metrics that will
be used to define this
process is the time to complete key tasks. Some tasks show a
range of time (dependent upon the
complexities of the course and the approval/review cycle).
These metrics or measures will be used to
gauge current process performance and later evaluate how
improvements will help this process to
better achieve the goals and objectives identified for the
stakeholders (or not). Additional metrics for
this process include:
• Accuracy of fit: Number of course learning objective met by
the textbook for MAN 4584

20. example is 80%. Further supplemental articles selected to
achieve 100%.
• Inventory decisions: Correct ISBN ordered 100%. For MAN
4584 course 90% of the textbooks
as demanded are available within 24 hours of order.
Running head: TEXTBOOK ORDERING: 5
• Number of textbook options: For MAN 4584 (Amazon, n.d.) =
34 options that might fit course
(would then need further evaluation to prioritize and select for
course).
• Student Survey of Instruction: For MAN 4584 the last two
offerings students rated the class 6.72
and 6.89 (out of 7).
Verify Accuracy
This process was reviewed with other faculty individually (S.
Kays and I. DeGraw, personal
communication, April 28, 2009). Their feedback was
incorporated into this prior definition. Further
research and networking was conducted on what other faculty
do at other colleges and universities

21. (FacultyOnline, n.d.). Additionally this process was followed in
the redevelopment of MAN 4584
and ETI 3116 as a pilot study to experiment and test results
further (W. Huehn-Brown, personal
communication, Nov. 30, 2009). Many refinements to this
process have occurred already and will
continue to evolve as courses are developed and redeveloped to
support the ongoing nature of
offerings to meet enrollment demands and development of key
concepts in this discipline.
Lessons Learned
Even what seems to be a simple process has many inputs and
outputs that must be
coordinated to support achieving the desired goals and
objectives for the process. Only after all
stakeholders understand the transformation needs to take these
inputs and create the outputs desired
can the improvement process even begin. During this exercise
all stakeholders learned more about
the current process in order to elevate understanding the process
to better see the issues and
opportunities for improvements that we’ll address in the coming
assignments. Additionally different
tasks and practices used by faculty will offer valueable ideas

22. that may be useful on upcoming
assignments to improve this process. Due to diverse schedules,
meetings with stakeholders were
hard to do at once so this was conducted separately (not meeting
as one team made communication
and collaboration difficult to build understanding and
agreement).
Running head: TEXTBOOK ORDERING: 6
References
Amazon (n.d.). Process Improvement. In Books. Retrieved from
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1275502302/ref=sr_pg_4?ie=UT
F8&keywords=Process%20I
mprovement&rh=n%3A!1000%2Ci%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3APro
cess%20Improvement&pa
ge=4
Andersen, B (2007). Business Process Improvement Toolbox.
ASQ Quality Press (2nd Edition).
FacultyOnline (n.d.). Textbook Selection Best Practices.
Retrieved from
http://www.facultyonline.com/

23. iSix Sigma (n.d.). SIPOC Diagram. In Tools and Templates.
Retrieved from
http://www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=ite
m&id=1013:sipoc-
diagram&Itemid=219
St. Petersburg College (n.d.a.). BOT Rules and Procedures.
Retrieved from
http://www.spcollege.edu/central/botrules/index.php
St. Petersburg College (n.d.b.). Credit Programs and Course
Objectives. Retrieved from
http://www.spcollege.edu/central/curriculum/
St. Petersburg College (n.d.c.). The College of Technology and
Management. Retrieved from
http://www.spcollege.edu/bachelors/mgtorg.php?program=mgtor
g
Wise Geek (n.d.). What is a Bachelor of Applied Science?
Retrieved from
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bachelor-of-applied-
science.htm
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1275502302/ref=sr_pg_4?ie=UT
F8&keywords=Process%20Improvement&rh=n%3A!1000%2Ci
%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AProcess%20Improvement&page=4
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1275502302/ref=sr_pg_4?ie=UT

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%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AProcess%20Improvement&page=4
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1275502302/ref=sr_pg_4?ie=UT
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%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AProcess%20Improvement&page=4
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http://www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=ite
m&id=1013:sipoc-diagram&Itemid=219
http://www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=ite
m&id=1013:sipoc-diagram&Itemid=219
http://www.spcollege.edu/central/botrules/index.php
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g
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bachelor-of-applied-
science.htm