During this course, you will develop a research project to better understand key strategic elements of operations management. Your topic will relate to any one of the following programs:

• Inventory control
• Facilities planning
• Distribution
• Cost reduction
• Customer service
• Decision making processes
• Supply chain management
• Capacity planning
• Forecasting
• Master scheduling

Your final research project (paper) will comprise approximately 6-8 pages in length (excluding the cover page and reference listing), be created as a MS Word document, formatted and written in APA style, use Times New Roman, 12-point font, with one inch margins. You must include at least three additional resources (articles, journals, etc.), in addition to your course textbook, to support your materials. Refer to the Research Project Rubric for grading criteria for the final paper.

This research project will be comprised of separate parts (assignments) that are due at different points during the course (refer to the syllabus for more details). You must complete all parts of the project, which include a topic selection, outline, draft, and final paper.

For this assignment, develop an outline of your approved research topic that you selected in Module 1. Your outline should be 2-3 pages in length (excluding title and reference pages), in APA format, Times New Roman, 12-font, with one inch margins.

Include the following information:

• Approved topic.
• Brief abstract.
• Bulleted outline for all key elements (major areas) and most sub-elements to support the topic.
• At least two possible resources (references) for your research (listed in APA format).