GEN 480: Critical thinking case
A case study for a manufacturing company called AcuScan, Inc was fulfilled. The case study involves "Operation Optimize" which plans to bring a new retail iScanner to the market. The study is given in two parts. The first part summarizes the case study and provides the assumptions, arguments problems, and issues of the situation. The second part is an executive summary written for Cliff O'Conner, CEO at AcuScan, Inc. including recommendations for a solution for the company's crisis.
Assumptions
Four employees that are employed at AcuScan and are involved in this case study they are the following; Kelly Thomas, Chief Engineer of Products Software, Pat Lambert, Director of Marketing, Cliff O'Connor, CEO and Chris Martinas, Vice President of Product Development. The assumptions of each employee are recognized and discussed starting with Kelly Thomas.
Kelly feels the budget and timeline to be impractical and thinks Optimize is putting the company on the line. He assumes that only one feature of the Optimize application can be developed by the company's dead line of August first. Based on his conversations and e-mails with Chris, Kelly believes that together the iScann project and financial plan are at risk. Kelly assumes that quality control is of greatest significance for this project. The company's reputation is at stake with new product development and should not be defined exclusively by the marketing department.
Pat had an idea for the Optimize that came to her one evening in a dream. Following a brief hallway discussion with Kelly, she assumed that it was effortless to build on existing applications of previous products and wrote up the product concept. After contacting focus groups she believes that there is an interest for Optimize and thinks AcuScan can add considerable advantage if the product is ready by year-end. Pat assumes that the 15 % company budget reduction will not have an effect on the Optimize project and feels that they will meet the August
Assumptions
Four employees that are employed at AcuScan and are involved in this case study they are the following; Kelly Thomas, Chief Engineer of Products Software, Pat Lambert, Director of Marketing, Cliff O'Connor, CEO and Chris Martinas, Vice President of Product Development. The assumptions of each employee are recognized and discussed starting with Kelly Thomas.
Kelly feels the budget and timeline to be impractical and thinks Optimize is putting the company on the line. He assumes that only one feature of the Optimize application can be developed by the company's dead line of August first. Based on his conversations and e-mails with Chris, Kelly believes that together the iScann project and financial plan are at risk. Kelly assumes that quality control is of greatest significance for this project. The company's reputation is at stake with new product development and should not be defined exclusively by the marketing department.
Pat had an idea for the Optimize that came to her one evening in a dream. Following a brief hallway discussion with Kelly, she assumed that it was effortless to build on existing applications of previous products and wrote up the product concept. After contacting focus groups she believes that there is an interest for Optimize and thinks AcuScan can add considerable advantage if the product is ready by year-end. Pat assumes that the 15 % company budget reduction will not have an effect on the Optimize project and feels that they will meet the August