Before
you begin writing the report, you will read the following requirements
that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements. Not reading
this information will lead to a lower grade:

Read
the grading rubric for the assignment. Use the grading rubric while
writing the report to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to
the highest possible grade.

Third
person writing is required. Third person means that there are no words
such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use
of “you or your” (second person writing). If uncertain how to write in
the third person, view this link: .quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person”>http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.

Contractions are not used in business writing, so you are expected NOT to use contraction in writing this assignment.

You
are expected to paraphrase and NOT use direct quotes. You are expected
to paraphrase, which can be learned by reviewing this link: .wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html”>https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html.

You are responsible for APA only for in-text citations and a reference list.

You
are expected to use the facts from the case scenario paired with the
weekly courses readings to develop the analysis and support the
reasoning. No more than two (2) external resources can be used in completing the assignment. Books
cannot be used as resources for this assignment. The expectation is
that you provide a robust use of the course readings. If any material
is used from a source document, it must be cited and referenced and the
page or paragraph number must be provided. A reference within a
reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and
vice versa.

In
completing the assignment, students are expected to use the facts from
the case study and company profile paired with the weekly courses
readings to develop the analysis. View the company profile here: .umuc.edu/content/enforced/211055-M_001033-01-2172/BMGT%20364%20Galaxy%20Toys,%20Inc.%20Company%20Profile.docx”>Galaxy Toys, Inc. Company Profile.

Step 2: Howto Set Up the Paper

Create
a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is double-spaced,
12-point font. The final product will be between 6-8 pages in length
excluding the title page and reference page and appendix. Write clearly
and concisely.

Use the following format:

• Create a title page with title, your name, the course, the instructor’s name and date;
• Introduction (no abstract)
• SWOT Analysis
• Strengths & Weaknesses
• Recommendation
• Short-term Production Goals and Objectives

Step 3: Part One: Read critically and analyze the following scenario:

The
toy industry is very fickle and innovation is critical. Sales for
January 2017 showed only a 3% rise over January 2016 leaving the company
managers concerned about meeting projected sales targets for 2017. In a
30-month plan, George Jepson, Jr., as CEO, together with Edward
Mercury, CFO, set long-term goals for the company to include the
following:

• increase sales unrelated to NASA toys by 22 percent;
• reduce company-wide costs by 5 percent within 15 months and 11.2 percent by the end of the plan;
• create new technology based action toys;
• use innovative technology in production to increase efficiency;
• reduce carbon footprint by 5 percent.

In
November 2016, the long term planning team began to select the newest
Galaxy product line. The choice of the right product design will
hopefully stop the slump in sales and jump start growth. Tomorrow,
February 4, 2017 is the final meeting of the planning team. The team
will choose between three options:

• produce 2 million Payload Nine toys or MMTJE1 for Christmas 2018;
• produce 1 million Payload Nine toys for Christmas 2017 and 1 million MMTJE1 for Christmas 2018;
• produce 1.5 million MMTJE1 toys for Christmas 2018.

The products have different production requirements. Payload Nine is designed to complement the International NASA Space Station series. Payload Nine is
geared to the 7-10 age groups and contains building blocks to make the
space shuttle with emphasis on the cargo hold and its loading arm.

Focus group results suggest that Payload Nine will sell well but it is not a “wow” product in the eyes of the group. It is not a trendsetting toy. The introduction of Payload Nine is
estimated to jump NASA sales by 6.8%. Payload Nine requires little
change on the production floor and supplies are easily obtainable.
Production could begin May 1, 2017 and completed in time for the
Christmas toy market. No additional personnel would be needed and
existing production would not be delayed. Production costs would fit
within the current year’s budget.

The
other project “Moon Mission to Jupiter’s Europa” (MMTJE1) is a 3D
engineered of the Curiosity vehicle used to explore Mars. The toy is
operated remotely allowing a child and parent to launch the capsule
“Juno 1” craft 500 feet in the air, unload the rover called Galileo and
move it along all terrain surfaces. Galileo takes pictures remotely and
sends them to a cell phone. The toy is geared for the age 11-15 market
but can be used with younger children as long as there is adult
supervision. The toy is made from a 3D printer and consists of a
plastic capsule and rover base with electronics added separately in
production. [If uncertain about what 3D printing is, view.com/what-is-3d”>http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d printing/]

Focus
group results suggest that it is a “wow” product and would also
encourage sales of related toys and books as Jupiter’s Moon Europa has
been deemed by scientists as the most accessible and likely place to
support habitable life as we know it to be. Children can view pictures
and imagine a Moon currently covered in ice as a new space frontier
adventure. An interactive video game is also envisioned. It will be the
first intergalactic action toy that Galaxy Toys has ever produced. MMTJE1is
estimated to bring a 15% increase in unrelated NASA sales if rolled out
in 2017 and 21.6% increase if rolled out in 2018. However, MMTJE1 is not production-friendly at this point.

The
new production equipment, electronics, computer programming and trained
personnel would not see production beginning before November of 2017.
Anticipated budget costs of $450,000 necessitating a budget increase of
$300,000 over all five plants would be needed. In order to meet the
October deadline for Christmas 2017 sales additional labor would be
needed with a cost increase of 20% over the projected $450,000 budget
costs. In addition, the push would necessitate significant rescheduling
of current production and likely require factory workers to put in
overtime. Finally, the rush would be predicated on the assumption that
production problems would not occur.

Keith
Wisternick, VP of Production, has the job of aligning all the
production teams for Galaxy Toys, and more specifically, he is the
person that ensures that each of the plants are capable of producing
toys that meet the quality standards of Galaxy Toys in an efficient and
cost-effective manner. Also, part of Keith’s job is to provide
valuable input into the long-term planning process of the company. Every
two years, Keith and his counterparts in the other departments meet to determine
the new product line for the upcoming two years. They are presented
with new ideas that have been developed by the Design and Engineering
Department.

After
soliciting input for recommendations on the toys that would most likely
meet the company’s future objectives, the Board of Directors narrowed
the choices to Payload Nine and Moon Mission to Jupiter’s Europa 1 (MMTJE1).

As
VP of Production, Keith is very aware that his recommendation and vote
lends great influence to the outcome. Lucky for Keith, he is not
expected to provide his recommendation without first delegating some
researching responsibilities to others. One person that he relies upon
for research and analysis is Itza Yu who is a Production Manager. Yu
has been tasked with creating a SWOT analysis for Keith’s review.
However, Yu has not had any prior experience with creating this type of
information. Keith has provided the following source to help him:

.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm”>https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm

Step 4: Create
the introductory paragraph. Within this paragraph, provide a brief
overview of the scenario. Then, provide a thesis statement and tell the
reader the main topics covered in the paper. The introductory
paragraph is the first paragraph of the paper but is typically written
after writing the body of the paper (Questions students responded to
above). View this website to learn how to write an introductory
paragraph: .writing.ucsb.edu/faculty/donelan/intro.html”>http://www.writing.ucsb.edu/faculty/donelan/intro.html

Step 5: SWOTAnalysis

Using
the facts that have been provided in the case scenario and company
profile as well as your own research on the toy industry, create a SWOT
analysis table Yu can give to Keith to use in making his long-term
planning decisions. If you need to know how to create a table, view: .wikihow.com/Insert-a-Table-in-a-Microsoft-Word-Document”>How to Insert a Table in a Microsoft Word Document.

Note:
A SWOT tool used correctly examines both the internal status of the
entire company as well as the current external climate of the toy
business. It is necessary to do the research on the toy industry to
create the SWOT correctly. This task requires the use of external
sources as well as the in-class material and case facts. Choose your
source documents wisely!

Be
sure to remember that the SWOT tool is not being used to examine the
project itself but to examine the current position of the company both
internally and externally in the toy industry.

Step 6: Strengths& Weaknesses

To
assist further Keith, Itza Yu must also provide a detailed explanation
as to what considerations led to the determination that certain facts
should be classified as “strengths” “weaknesses”, “opportunities” and
“threats.” In other words, it is not enough to list an item in a
quadrant but instead, Itza Yu must explain “why” these facts were
included in the analysis.

• Provide
  a detailed explanation as to what considerations led to the
  determination that certain facts should be classified as strengths,
  weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Step 7: Recommendation

Lastly, Itza Yu must recommend the best long-term planning decision for Keith’s approval. In this report:

Yu
must explain the analysis and factors used in evaluating the vision,
mission, long-term goals and SWOT analysis of the company that led to
the conclusions that formed the basis of the decision. Remember, what
Yu presents must be accurate and well supported since Keith will make
this recommendation to the Long-term Planning Committee. In
the evaluation, the explanation must answer the question what
recommendation will likely bring the most sustainability to Galaxy toys
and why?

Step 8: PartTwo: Short Term Production Goals and Objectives

Read critically and analyze the following scenario:

The Board of Directors has decided to accept the recommendation to roll out the “Moon Mission to Jupiter’s Europa 1”
for the holiday season of 2018. In a virtual meeting, led by Itza Yu,
the production managers have had a “brainstorming” session and have
created a list of short-term goals and objectives.

In
reviewing the list, Itza Yu noted that some of the items on the list
are sound short-term goals and objectives while others are not and
therefore, should be removed. He also noted that some of the items do
not fit well with the company’s vision and mission and will need to be
eliminated.

Assuming
the role of Itza Yu, students must determine whether the items on the
list are “goals” or “objectives” and whether they should be adopted or
abandoned. The list is as follows:

Short Term Goals and Objectives List

• Production of quality MMTJE1 toys must start February 20^th, 2018.
• Production of quality MMTJE1 toys must start by July 1, 2018.
• Establish timelines for starting production.
• Establish timelines for hiring new personnel.
• MMTJE1 quality toys production.
• Additional personnel must be hired by February 20^th 2018.
• Materials must be state of the art.
• Completion dates for material purchase and delivery set for prototype

Completion dates for material purchase and delivery set for production roll out

• 3D printers must be purchased by February 20^th, 2018.
• 3D printers must be purchased and installed by November 1, 2018.
• The first MMTJE1 toys should be produced by December 1, 2017.
• QC should evaluate first prototype toys by December 31, 2017.
• Completion dates for QC standards will be determined by QC.
• Safety standards should be determined by QC by May 1, 2017.
• Materials must be purchased by and delivered by July 1, 2017.
• New packages should be palletized by May 1, 2018.
• Personnel for all production functions must be organized by March 31, 2017.
• Shipping should begin immediately upon final inspection from Quality Control.
• Shipping should begin July 1, 2018.
• Shipping start dates should be determined.
• IT must confirm programming for 3D printers is complete by June 1, 2017.
• 3D machine operators must be trained by October 31, 2017.
• Establish timelines for completion of 3D programming, training and installation.
• Maintenance for 3D printers must be done daily.
• Personnel must be cross trained on the 3D printers.
• Training on new equipment must be done by October 31, 2017.
• Marketing will determine shipping start date.

Answer
the following required elements for Part Two making sure that the facts
of the scenario and the course readings support the reasoning of the
answers provided.

From
the list above, students should generate a table with three columns.
Label the first column, “Appropriate Short-term Goals.” Label the
second column “appropriate objectives”. The third column should be
those other goals and objectives that have to be abandoned.

Take
each item from the list above and place the item into the appropriate
column. In completing this task, Yu is expected to demonstrate an
understanding of the difference between “goals” and “objectives” and
their choices should reflect this understanding. Yu cannot change any
of the goals and objectives that he has been provided in the list.

• (G) A goal is defined as being a broad aim and spells out what needs to be done generally.
• (O) An objective is defined as a specific and measurable action needed to meet the goal.
• An
  abandoned item is neither a goal nor objective, or does not fit with
  the time line of the project. Hint look at the pattern of the tasks and
  dates to achieve them.

Yu
will clearly explain the reasoning for the categorization of the goals
and objectives as this analysis will be very helpful to Keith Wisternick
and the Board of Directors of Galaxy Toys, Inc.

Step 9: Writethe summary paragraph

Write
the summary paragraph. A summary paragraph restates the main topics of
the paper. Make sure to leave a reader with a sense that the paper is
complete. The summary paragraph is the last paragraph of a paper and
does not need a heading.

Step 10:Proofread the report for spelling and grammatical issues, and third person writing.

• Use the spell and grammar check in Word as a first measure;
• Have someone who has excellent English skills to proof the paper;
• Consider submitting the paper to the Effective Writing Center (EWC). The EWC will provide 4-6 areas that may need improvement.

IMPORTANT LINK FOR SWAT:https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm