Description
Operations management professionals are often relied upon to make decisions regarding operational processes. Those who utilize a data-driven, structured
approach have a clear advantage over those offering decisions based solely on intuition. You will be provided with a scenario often encountered by an operations
manager. Your task is to review the “A-Cat Corp.: Forecasting” scenario, the addendum, and the accompanying data in the case scenario and addendum; outline
the appropriate analysis strategy; select a suitable statistical tool; and use data analysis to ultimately drive the decision. Once this has been completed, you will
be challenged to present your data, data analysis strategy, and overall decision in a concise report, justifying your analysis.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Introduction to the problem:
A. Provide a concise description of the scenario that you will be analyzing. The following questions might help you describe the scenario: What is
the type of organization identified in the scenario? What is the organization’s history and problem identified in the scenario? Who are the key
internal and external stakeholders?
II. Create an analysis plan to guide your analysis and decision making:
A. Identify any quantifiable factors that may be affecting the performance of operational processes. Provide a concise explanation of how these
factors may be affecting the operational processes.
B. Develop a problem statement that addresses the given problem in the scenario and contains quantifiable measures.
C. Propose a strategy that addresses the problem of the organization in the given case study and seeks to improve sustainable operational
processes. How will adjustments be identified and made?
III. Identify statistical tools and methods to collect data:
A. Identify the appropriate family of statistical tools that you will use to perform your analysis. What are your statistical assumptions concerning
the data that led you to selecting this family of tools? In other words, why did you select this family of tools for statistical analysis?
B. Determine the category of the provided data in the given case study. Be sure to justify why the data fits into this category type. What is the
relationship between the type of data and the tools?
C. From the identified family of statistical tools, select the most appropriate tool(s) for analyzing the data provided in the given case study.
D. Justify why you chose this tool to analyze the data. Be sure to include how this tool will help predict the use of the data in driving decisions.
E. Describe the quantitative method that will best inform data-driven decisions. Be sure to include how this method will point out the relationships
between the data. How will this method allow for the most reliable data?
IV. Analyze data to determine the appropriate decision for the identified problem:
A. Outline the process needed to utilize your statistical analysis to reach a decision regarding the given problem.
B. Explain how following this process leads to valid, data-driven decisions. In other words, why is following your outlined process important?