Question 1

Case Study: Online Purchasing at McDonalds

Read the Online Purchasing at McDonald’s case study on page 507 of your text book, and answer the three questions at the end.

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

• Write between 750 – 1,250 words (approximately 3 – 5 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style, see example below.
• Use font size 12 and 1” margins.
• Include cover page and reference page.
• At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing.
• No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references.
• Use at least three references from outside the course material, one reference must be from EBSCOhost. Text book, lectures, and other materials in the course may be used, but are not counted toward the three reference requirement.
• Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) in the paper and list on a reference page in APA style.

References must come from sources such as, scholarly journals found in EBSCOhost, CNN, online newspapers such as, The Wall Street Journal, government websites, etc. Sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. are not acceptable for academic writing.

Questions 2

Toyota’s safety recalls – Are they indicators of problems associated with quality management, outsourcing or simply indicators of setting inconsistent competitive priorities in operations strategy?

Toyota is known for its innovative operations management practices. Over the last three decades Toyota has received many awards for their excellent quality and performance. The marketplace has rewarded them with higher sales and market-share, ultimately making them the world’s largest producer of automobiles. So what went wrong in January 2010? Are the safety recalls due to faulty gas pedals an example of an isolated, one-time problem or are they symptoms of bigger long-term problems with Toyota and also the automobile industry?

Topics that the essay must address:

·How has operations strategy and competitive priorities evolved in the automobile industry during the last 100 years

·What are the positive and negative tradeoffs associated with outsourcing production functions to supplier organizations?

·What quality systems and procedures and systems should Toyota have followed to ensure that faulty automobiles are not delivered to the customers?