Peer Review

The Case for Process Improvement

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Jan 7, 2018 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This is a short activity that could be used to support learning in a unit or a chapter, for homework, or in class as an introduction to demonstrating how to calculate to determine the most effective expenditure. Students walk through an example how profits can be doubled with the elimination of only a fraction of the "waste" in a company's operation. It could be used in any business class at the undergraduate level, but particularly in an operations class.
Type of Material:: Tutorial
Recommended Uses:: - This could be used to support learning in a unit or a chapter, for homework, or in class as an introduction to demonstrating how to calculate to determine the most effective expenditure. - This is also suggested for professional development, particularly for those engaged in process development and process improvement.
Technical Requirements:: The site requires joining and then login information needs to be entered, which will be confirmed by an email. There is no charge to join. Programs used to review this learning object include Adobe Flash Player 24; Adobe Reader 15; Java 8, Update 121; Firefox 50.1.0
Identify Major Learning Goals:: - Students will learn how profits can be doubled by eliminating a fraction of the waste currently existing in a process. - Students will learn how to decide between an increased sales emphasis and a process improvement emphasis
Target Student Population:: This can be used for upper level business undergraduate, graduate, and personal development efforts in organizations.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Need to understand basic cost structure

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: - The information is clear - The example provided is easy to understand. - This is a good demonstration of how to calculate the financial aspects of process improvement to determine the value - The learner has the opportunity to respond to questions as a bit of a knowledge check. - Students learn how quickly profits can be improved
Concerns:: - It is only one example, with nothing in terms of additional references, context, or material. - Some background information will have to be supplied. - Cannot download it

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: - This provides a good example of the financial considerations necessary when debating the value of process improvement, especially as it compares to spending on a marketing campaign when there is obviously more value in eliminating waste in the process. - For the example it provides, the resource is a great starting point to a larger discussion/ lesson plan.
Concerns:: - There are no supporting resources - There are no clear instructions on how to navigate the site - Students cannot repeat steps of the presentation once the end has been reached.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: - The case was easy to follow - It is relatively short and concise - The concepts are clear. - The resource is a flash 'slide'; presentation, where the user clicks to advance/repeat and can select an answer from a quiz question.
Concerns:: - Not sure how screen-readers would function with the resource. - Only text is available

Other Issues and Comments:: When attempting to download the learning object, there is a pop-up that keeps recurring even though this reviewer accepted the pop-up which provided a PDF converter. It was not possible to get past the download button to actually do the download. While this was inconvenient, it did not prevent a review of the learning object because it is accessible by paging through on the website itself.
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