The document provides guidelines and a rubric for a final business development plan project. It outlines the requirements and expectations for the project, which involves assessing an organization's operations and making recommendations to improve business sustainability, quality, and competitiveness. The project is divided into three milestones and a final submission. The milestones involve analyzing the organization, assessing lean techniques and forecasting, and evaluating business opportunities. The final submission combines these into a comprehensive business development plan. Critical elements to be addressed include aligning resources to opportunities, managing quality, lean practices, technology, and sustainability.

1. Project Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
The final project for this course is the creation of a business
development plan. In this program, you have learned that every
company or organization has an operations function, whether it
is in the manufacture of goods or the delivery of services.
Ultimately, the purpose of operations management is to identify
ways to promote company values that strengthen organizational
performance through cost-savings opportunities, customer
service improvements, increased manufacturing efficiency and
supply-chain logistics, continued competitiveness within the
industry, and long-term sustainability efforts.
This project will demonstrate your ability to assess your
selected organization’s or company’s operational processes, and
to make meaningful recommendations that balance business
sustainability with quality-driven, lean operations for competing
in the global marketplace. You will identify opportunities for
improving business operations and strengthening organizational
performance. These opportunities could be related to internal
capabilities development, divestiture, outsourcing, or a
combination of the three. In addition, you will examine risk
mitigation and the long-range viability of the selected
organization or company.
The project is divided into threemilestones, which will be
submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold
learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones
will be submitted in Modules Three, Five, and Seven. The final
project will be submitted in Module Nine. Remember that you
final submission will include a conclusion that summarizes the

2. milestone work into a closing section.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the
following course outcomes:
· Assess internal organizational capabilities and limitations for
determining business development and cost-savings
opportunities
· Recommend business best practices that consistently meet
customer cost, quality, and satisfaction expectations through
utilization of global benchmarks
· Determine opportunities for reducing inventory and
infrastructure costs while supporting current business
operations
· Evaluate current business operations for opportunities to
utilize technology for reducing costs, increasing production, and
delivering consistently superior products or services
· Assess business sustainability with respect to profits, people,
and the planet to mitigate risk and ensure corporate viability
Prompt
Select a company or organization that meets the following
criteria:
· Must be from the manufacturing, service, IT, or healthcare
industries (other industries could be used with instructor
Must be large enough to have multiple
product/service lines to consider
· Must be in a market that is highly competitive where
production costs are always a key concern
· Must have potential for and a vision of global expansion
Note: In the absence of a suitable real company, you may use a
notional or conceptual company for this assignment as long as it
meets the above criteria. In either case, to avoid any proprietary

3. data issues, the performance data for this assignment should not
be real data; however, real data could be used if it is publically
available.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Aligning Resources to Market Opportunities
A. Assess your company’s or organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations with respect to its current
operations. In your assessment, include human, organizational,
and infrastructure factors.
B. Based on the company’s or organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations, what expansion or business
developmentopportunities can you identify? How will these
opportunities align to the current domestic and global markets?
Your response should consider the political, economic, social,
and technical factors that affect the company.
C. Based on the company’s or organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations, what cost-savings opportunities can
you identify? How will these opportunities align to the current
domestic and global markets? Your response should consider
the political, economic, social, and technical factors that affect
the company.
D. Describe the external threat factors in the domestic and
global markets that the company or organization should
consider when developing these business development and cost-
savings opportunities. Your response should consider the
political, economic, social, and technical factors that affect the
company.
II. Managing the Quality Imperative for Global Competition
A. Based on your assessment of the company’s or organization’s
internal capabilities and limitations and the opportunities you
identified, select total quality management (TQM) means that

4. the company or organization could employ to strengthen
organizational performance. Justify your selection.
B. Based on your assessment of the company’s or organization’s
internal capabilities and limitations and the opportunities you
identified, select an appropriate series from an ISO 9000 family
of standards that the company or organization could employ to
strengthen organizational performance. Justify your selection.
C. Based on the TQM and ISO 9000 benchmarks that you
selected, recommend global best practices that strengthen
organizational performance by ensuring quality, cost
containment, and customer satisfaction for the company or
organization. Justify your recommendations.
III. Lean Practices in the Workplace and the Supply Chain
A. 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?
B. 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?
C. 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?
IV. Technology for Competitive Differentiation
A. Evaluate current business operations in one segment of the
enterprise to identify performance gaps relative to cost,
production, and delivery of products or services.
B. Based on the performance gaps you identified, describe

5. specific opportunities that would benefit from technology
enhancement or technical solutions. Ensure that your response
focuses on using technology to reduce costs, increase
production, and deliver consistently superior products or
services.
C. How can the technology you described be utilized to mitigate
the performance gap? Ensure that your response focuses on
using technology to reduce costs, increase production, and
deliver consistently superior products or services.
V. Sustainability in the Value Chain
A. Assess the sustainability of your company or organization
with respect to profits, people, and the planet. You might
consider questions such as these in your response: What are the
challenges to sustainability? What sustainable business
practices does your company or organization already employ?
Do you see any gaps between current business operations and
sustainability?
B. What alternative business practices could the company or
organization employ to mitigate risks to business operations
while enhancing sustainability?
C. How can the company or organization implement the
alternative business practices while ensuring long-term
viability?
Milestones
Milestone One: Case Analysis
In Module Three, you will begin the process of creating a
business development plan by submitting a case analysis of your
selected organization or company. In this submission, you will
assess and describe your organization’s or company’s internal
organization capabilities and recommend strategies for
optimizing production based on a detailed analysis of existing
processes, resources (facilities, human resources,
equipment/machines, supply chain/inventory) and strategic

6. business planning (SBP) goals. This milestone will be graded
with the Milestone One Rubric.
Milestone Two: Lean Techniques and Forecasting Analysis
In Module Five, 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, continuous improvement throughout the organization,
and technological advancements create product differentiation
resulting in a competitive advantage for the company. This
milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.
Milestone Three: Business Operations Opportunities Analysis
In Module Seven, you will evaluate current business operations
for opportunities to utilize project management, technology, and
project management tools along with other techniques to reduce
costs, increase production, incorporate sustainability principles,
and deliver consistently superior products and services using
quantitative tools and techniques. This milestone will be graded
with the Milestone Three Rubric.
Final Submission: Business Development Plan
In Module Nine, you will submit your completed final project.
In the project, you will assess your organization’s or company’s
sustainability efforts, focusing on how they mitigate risks and
how their efforts promote long-term viability. It should be a
complete, polished artifact of the three milestone pieces,
containing all of the critical elements of the final project with
an APA-formatted listing of all references used in the project.
All instructor feedback gained throughout the course should be
incorporated into the final submission. Conclude your plan by
applying the knowledge you have gained over the course of the
project and sharing overall insights from your own professional
experience as they relate to your company. This submission will
be graded with the Final Project Rubric.
Deliverables

7. Milestone
Deliverable
Module Due
Grading
One
Case Analysis
Three
Graded separately; Milestone One Rubric
Two
Lean Techniques and Forecasting Analysis
Five
Graded separately; Milestone Two Rubric
Three
Business Operations Opportunities Analysis
Seven
Graded separately; Milestone Three Rubric
Final Project Submission: Business Development Plan
Nine
Graded separately; Final Project Rubric
Final Project Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your submission should be 15–20
pages in length and should use double spacing, 12-point Times
New Roman font, and one-inch margins. You should use current
APA style guidelines for your citations and reference list. At
least 10 outside information sources are required, although
many students might find that more are necessary to satisfy the
requirements of the project. Please adhere to the SNHU
Academic Honesty Policyas you develop this project.
As necessary, copy and paste any data analysis from Excel into
your Word document for submission. You may include your
original Excel documents as supplementary material if you
believe this will strengthen your contribution.

8. Critical Elements
Exemplary (100%)
Proficient (90%)
Needs Improvement (70%)
Not Evident (0%)
Value
Aligning Resources to Market
Opportunities:
Internal
Capabilities and
Limitations
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and assessment is exceptionally
clear, detailed, and contextualized, demonstrating a nuanced
understanding of the company’s or organization’s internal
organizational capabilities and limitations
Assesses the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities
and limitations with respect to current operations, including
human, organizational, and infrastructure factors
Assesses the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities
and limitations with respect to current operations, but
assessment does not include human, organizational, or
infrastructure factors or is cursory or inaccurate
Does not assess the company’s or organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations with respect to current operations
4.8
Aligning Resources to Market
Opportunities:
Business
Development
Opportunities
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and response demonstrates keen
insight into relationship between internal organizational
capabilities and limitations and

9. business development opportunities
Identifies appropriate expansion or business development
opportunities and explains how opportunities align to current
domestic and global markets, basing response on the company’s
or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations and
including political, economic, social, and technical factors that
affect the company
Identifies expansion or business development opportunities and
explains how opportunities align to current domestic and global
markets, but opportunities are not appropriate based on the
company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and
limitations or political, economic, social, and technical factors
that affect the company
Does not identify expansion or business development
opportunities
4.8
Aligning Resources to Market
Opportunities:
Cost-Savings
Opportunities
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and response demonstrates keen
insight into relationship between internal organizational
capabilities and limitations and cost-savings opportunities
Identifies appropriate costsavings opportunities and explains
how opportunities align to current domestic and global markets,
basing response on the company’s or organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations and including political, economic,
social, and technical factors that affect the company
Identifies cost-savings opportunities and explains how
opportunities align to current domestic and global markets, but
opportunities are not appropriate based on the company’s or
organization’s internal capabilities and limitations or political,
economic, social, and
technical factors that affect the company

10. Does not identify cost-savings opportunities
4.8
Aligning Resources to Market
Opportunities:
External Threat
Factors
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and description demonstrates
nuanced understanding of developing business development and
cost-savings opportunities
Describes external threat factors in domestic and global markets
that the company or organization should consider when
developing business development and costsavings opportunities,
including political, economic, social, and
technical factors that affect the company
Describes external threat factors in domestic and global markets
that the company or organization should consider when
developing business development and costsavings opportunities
but does not include political, economic, social, and technical
factors that affect the company, or description has gaps in
clarity or detail
Does not describe external threat factors in domestic and global
markets that the company or organization should consider when
developing business development and cost-savings opportunities
4.8
Managing the
Quality Imperative for Global
Competition: TQM
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilization of global benchmarks
Selects and justifies appropriate TQM means the company or
organization could employ to strengthen organizational
performance, basing response on assessment of the company’s
or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations and the
identified opportunities

11. Selects and justifies TQM means the company or organization
could employ, but selection is not appropriate for strengthening
organizational performance, or response is not based on
assessment of the company’s or organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations and the identified opportunities
Does not select and justify TQM
means the company or organization could employ
6.4
Managing the
Quality Imperative for Global
Competition: ISO
9000
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilization of global benchmarks
Selects and justifies appropriate series from ISO 9000 family of
standards that the company or organization could employ to
strengthen organizational performance, basing response on
assessment of the company’s or organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations and the identified opportunities
Selects and justifies series from ISO 9000 family of standards
that the company or organization could employ, but selection is
not appropriate for strengthening organizational performance, or
response is not based on assessment of the company’s or
organization’s internal capabilities and limitations and the
identified opportunities
Does not select and justify series from ISO 9000 family of
standards that the company or organization could employ
6.4
Managing the
Quality Imperative for Global
Competition:
Global Best
Practices

12. Meets “Proficient” criteria, and best practice recommendations
demonstrate keen insight into meeting customer expectations
through utilization of global benchmarks
Recommends and justifies appropriate global best practices that
strengthen organizational performance by ensuring quality, cost
containment, and customer satisfaction for company or
organization
Recommends and justifies global best practices, but practices
are not appropriate for strengthening organization performance
by ensuring quality, cost containment, and customer satisfaction
for company or organization
Does not recommend and justify global best practices
6.4
Lean Practices in the Workplace
and the Supply
Chain: Lean
Techniques
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilizing lean techniques and practices while
supporting current business operations
Determines appropriate opportunities for the company or
organization to employ lean techniques to strengthen
organizational performance while supporting current business
operations and explains potential outcome of using these lean
techniques
Determines opportunities for the company or organization to
employ lean techniques to strengthen organizational
performance and explains potential outcome of using these lean
techniques, but techniques are not appropriate for supporting
current business operations
Does not determine opportunities for company or organization
to employ lean techniques to strengthen organizational
performance
6.4
Lean Practices in the Workplace

13. and the Supply
Chain: JIT
Practices
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilizing JIT practices while supporting
current business operations
Determines appropriate opportunities for the company or
organization to use JIT practices to reduce inventory costs while
supporting current business operations and explains potential
outcome of using these JIT practices
Determines opportunities for the company or organization to use
JIT practices to reduce inventory costs and explains potential
outcome of using these JIT practices, but opportunities are not
appropriate for supporting current business operations
Does not determine opportunities for the company or
organization to use JIT practices to reduce inventory costs
6.4
Lean Practices in the Workplace
and the Supply
Chain: OPT and
TOC Principles
Meets “Proficient” criteria and response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilizing OPT and TOC principles while
supporting current business operations
Determines appropriate opportunities for the company or
organization to use OPT and TOC principles to reduce costs and
increase throughput while supporting current business
operations and explains potential outcome of using these OPT
and
TOC principles
Determines opportunities for the company or organization to use
OPT and TOC principles to reduce costs and increase
throughput and explains potential outcome of using these OPT

14. and TOC principles, but opportunities are not appropriate for
supporting current business operations
Does not determine opportunities for company or organization
to use OPT and TOC principles to reduce costs and
increase throughput
6.4
Technology for Competitive
Differentiation:
Current Business
Operations
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and evaluation demonstrates
nuanced understanding of current business operations
Evaluates current business operations in one segment of the
enterprise to identify performance gaps relative to cost,
production, and delivery of products or services
Evaluates current business operations in one segment of the
enterprise to identify performance gaps relative to cost,
production, and delivery of products or services, but evaluation
is cursory or inaccurate
Does not evaluate current business operations in one segment of
enterprise to identify performance gaps relative to cost,
production, and delivery of products or services
6.4
Technology for Competitive
Differentiation:
Technology
Enhancement
Meets “Proficient” criteria and response demonstrates keen
insight into utilizing technology for reducing costs, increasing
production, and delivering consistently superior products or
services
Describes specific opportunities that would benefit from
technology enhancement or technical solutions, basing response
on identified performance gaps and focusing on using

15. technology to reduce costs, increase production, and deliver
consistently superior products or services
Describes specific opportunities that would benefit from
technology enhancement or technical solutions, but response
lacks detail or clarity, is not based on identified performance
gaps or does not focus on using technology to reduce costs,
increase production, and deliver consistently superior products
or services
Does not describe specific opportunities that would benefit from
technology enhancement or technical solutions
6.4
Technology for Competitive
Differentiation:
Performance Gap
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and explanation demonstrates keen
insight into utilizing technology for reducing costs, increasing
production, and delivering consistently superior products or
services
Explains how previously described technology can be utilized to
mitigate performance gap, focusing explanation on using
technology to reduce costs, increase production, and deliver
consistently superior products or services
Explains how previously described technology can be utilized to
mitigate performance gap, but explanation lacks clarity, detail,
or focus on using technology to reduce costs, increase
production, and deliver consistently superior products or
services
Does not explain how previously described technology can be
utilized to mitigate performance gap
6.4
Sustainability in the Value Chain:
Sustainability
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and assessment demonstrates
nuanced understanding of relationship between business

16. sustainability and profits, people, and the planet
Assesses sustainability of company or organization with respect
to profits, people, and the planet
Assesses sustainability of company or organization with respect
to profits, people, and the planet, but assessment is cursory or
inaccurate
Does not assess sustainability of company or organization with
respect to profits, people, and the planet
6.4
Sustainability in the Value Chain:
Mitigate Risks
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and description demonstrates deep
understanding of relationship between business sustainability
and risk mitigation
Describes appropriate alternative business practices the
company or organization could employ to mitigate risks to
business operations while enhancing sustainability
Describes alternative business practices the company or
organization could employ to mitigate risks to business
operations, but practices are not appropriate for enhancing
sustainability or description lacks clarity or detail
Does not describe alternative business practices the company or
organization could employ to mitigate risks to business
operations
6.4
Sustainability in the Value Chain:
Long-Term
Viability
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and description demonstrates deep
understanding of relationship between business sustainability
and corporate viability
Explains how the company or organization can implement the
alternative business practices while ensuring long-term viability
Explains how the company or organization can implement the

17. alternative business practices while ensuring long-term
viability, but explanation has gaps in clarity or detail
Does not explain how the company or organization can
implement the alternative business practices while ensuring
long-term viability
6.4
Articulation of Response
Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a
professional and easy to read format
Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact
readability and articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of
ideas
4
Total
100%
1
1
1