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1. Mission Statement that addresses minimally, what business will the company is in, who the
customers are, and how will the company’s basic beliefs define the business.
2. Strategy: How do you plan to gain a competitive advantage in the market place, or in other
words, “what are your core competencies?” Try to address the question, whether your
company will compete on, cost, quality, time (speed), or flexibility? Or a combination of two or
more of these dimensions, giving reasonable explanations.
3. Results of environmental scanning (government regulations, trends, opportunities, threats,
etc.) and the factors influencing your choice of product, process etc.
4. A detailed descriiption of your product (include complete details of the component parts,
and the process of manufacture). You may also want to discuss,
How did you pick your product?
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a) Idea development b) Product screening (alternate products considered etc.) c) Preliminary
design and testing (pilot, samples, any market tests etc.) d) Final design (components, processes,
material, machinery and other resources necessary to manufacture your product- including any
outsourcing)
5. How will you ensure consistent quality in your products and processes? How do your
company’s standards compare with the industry standards? Any bench marking etc.
6. Forecasting: Decide what to forecast. Evaluate and analyze appropriate data (industry,
regional, and national including demand data from a similar company). Select the forecasting
method (quantitative, not qualitative) and justify your selection. Generate forecasts (please
include as attachments). How will you check accuracy of your forecasts? Will you forecast for
seasonality and if so, how? Explain.
7. Operations planning: Determine the necessary “production capacity” of your facility based
on your demand forecasts. What productivity measurements will you use?
8. Location Consideration: Describe the steps/analysis that you followed to determine the best
location for your facility. Discuss, a) Regional-national considerations, proximity to sources of
supply, customers, or sources of labor. b) Community considerations (any use of break-even
analysis or other technique), and c) Site considerations. Outline your supply chain strategy and
discuss how it influenced your facility location decision (from raw material to customer).
9. Manufacturing: Describe how you will manufacture your product (machines, labor,
robotics, etc.). What type of manufacturing process layout will you use and why? Keep in mind
that you will most likely utilize just in time (JIT) to the extent possible. Also, recall the process
of manufacture you chose, namely, continuous process, flow shop, cellular, job shop, project, or
a hybrid (combination of two or more of the former)
10. Develop a diagram (attachment) of the facility layout and justify your layout choice. Show
how the product flows through the facility from raw materials to finished product.
Note: Diagrams should reflect space requirements for each function (machine, operator, and
WIP, etc.). Discuss briefly, what happens at each station, and show output at each station
(pieces per hour or similar measure).
11. How will you utilize “just-in-time” concepts in your facility? Discuss your Inventory
management policies and ERP implementation, if any.