Assignment:
Produce an analytical report, mapping and analysing the procurement and supply chain for a chosen company. Present your results as both a written report (2500 words) detailing your findings, and improvement programs AND a Google Sites presentation of your complete analysis. Read all instructions and format requirements below before beginning on your assessment task.
Background:
You have been recruited as the procurement and supply chain analyst for a major company (e.g. a multinational manufacturer, large retailer, service provider).
The Director of Supply Chain has asked you to meet with him. During this meeting, he has discussed some of the challenges and opportunities that the company is currently facing, indicating that the supply chain team should proactively seek for end-to-end supply chain improvement programs to safeguard the company's long-term success. The Director of Supply Chain tells you that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is very keen on the supply chain performance of the company and sees the supply chain team as having a strategic role to assist the company to progress toward its vision, mission and strategic goals.
The Director of Supply Chain has also told you that there will be a board meeting coming up in a few weeks, and has requested you to work on an end-to-end procurement and supply chain mapping and analysis of the company, and identity improvement programs that can result in potential cost savings while contributing to social and/or environmental practices and performance of the company.
You know that perhaps this is your greatest opportunity to create some visibility of your skills, strengths and innovate ideas to the top management, and also demonstrate that you can significantly contribute to the supply chain efficiency and effectiveness of your employer.
The Director of Supply Chain has given you some valuable information in terms of specific issues that you will need to address as part of this work (see below). You know that there is a lot of work involved in addressing these issues and that you will have to undertake a structured and professional approach to develop an analytical report that impresses the top management.
Description
In order to develop your analytical report, you will need to go through the following steps:
1. Choose a company (multinational manufacturer, large retailer, service provider) - make sure the product associated with your chosen company is not too complex (e.g. car, aircraft and the like)
2. Address all tasks outlined in the list of Detailed Tasks using secondary (e.g. company reports, journal articles, newspaper articles) and/or primary (e.g. interview, survey) data
3. Create a Google Sites page (see below for how to do this), and share the URL with your lecturer .
4. Upload your comprehensive analysis of all tasks outlined in the list of Detailed Tasks to Google Sites (see below), and only include your key findings in your report. A number of analytical tools (from the topics covered during the semester) are suggested throughout the tasks which will assist with the analysis.
5. Discuss the company's procurement and supply chain analysis, focussing on the synthesis of the findings associated with supply, operations, information, integration and sustainability issues. We suggest that you use the dynamic alignment model(Module 5) as a theoretical framework to synthesis your findings into a meaningful supply chain-wide discussion of issues that the company is facing. This is a fundamental component if the report as you will need to provide an integrated understanding of your analysis which requires delving into the issues of, for example, alignment and systems thinking.
6. Drawing on Step 5, propose and discuss improvement programs focused on supply, operations, information, integration and sustainability which can collectively contribute to mitigate the challenges that the company is facing across its supply chain.
Prepare your report as a Word document, addressed to your company's Board, no more than 2500 words, using Academy of Management referencing style (your reference list is not included in your word count). Make sure you address all the questions in the Detailed Tasks in your report. As you prepare your report, upload all your analyses to Google Sites, sharing your progress with your tutor.
You will be asked to show your progress, by demonstrating your work in your Google Sites, for Assessment 3, so make sure you also read through the Assessment 3 instructions and understand what is expected.
Report tasks in detail:
Work through these tasks for your Assessment 4. Make sure you upload your upload your analyses to your Google Sites page.
Part A: Supply issues
1. Identify and describe key product categories that the procurement department has to manage
2. Research the supply market of the company and identify its suppliers (related to key product categories) as well as their geographical dispersion
3. Assess the supply market and importance of sourcing items (or services) (use Kraljic, 1983)
4. Research supplier selection, evaluation, and development practices and programs
5. Research key supply-related challenges and opportunities in your company and industry
Part B: Operations issues
1. Identify and describe your sales market and key customers of the company (including their geographical dispersion, importance to the company)
2. Identify, discuss and evaluate demand forecasting techniques used by the company. Are different techniques used across the sales market? Why?
3. Identity, discuss and evaluate inventory management techniques used by your company; Are different techniques used for different products? Why?
4. Research demand and inventory management challenges of the company
Part C: Information issues
1. Research for instances of bullwhip effect as well as their ‘causes' and ‘remedies' across the company's supply chain (use Padmanabhan et al., 2009); discuss how this impacted the company's supply chain capabilities
2. Identify key information technology tools used across the company's key supply chain business processes; explain how these IT tools impacted the company's supply chain capabilities
3. Identify collaborative practices used across the company's supply chain (in relationship with both suppliers and customers)? Focus on one practice (for both supplier and customer side), discuss its implementation, challenges and opportunities, and impacts on the company's supply chain capabilities
Part D: Integration issues
1. Develop a comprehensive map of the company's supply chain (using findings from Parts A and B)
2. Using the 9-step framework for design and assessment of supply chain integration, assess the company's level of integration (collect relevant evidence for each step)
3. Expand your assessment of step 3 drawing on key tenets of the Triple-A Supply Chain, i.e. agility, adaptability and alignment
Part E: Sustainability issues
1. Identify key procurement and supply chain sustainability practices used by the company (see Pagell and Wu, 2009)
2. Assess sustainability implementation and integration across the company's supply chain drawing on the triggers model (both internal and external) (use Seuring and Muller, 2008)
Required structure for your Report:
Use this structure and suggested word count when developing your report. Remember that your audience for this report is your company's Board.
- Cover page (not included in Word count), including a link to your Google Sites
- Table of Contents (not included in Word count)
- Executive Summary (not included in Word count)
- Vision, mission and strategic goals of the company (100 words)
- Findings of supply analysis (250 words)
- Findings of operations analysis (250 words)
- Findings of information analysis (250 words)
- Findings of integration analysis (250 words)
- Findings of sustainability analysis (250 words)
- Discussion of the company's procurement and supply chain analysis (550 words)
o (We suggest you use the dynamic alignment model (Module 5) as your theoretical framework)
- Discussion of improvement programs (250 words)
- How improvement programs can assist the company to achieve its vision, mission and strategic goals (250 words)
- Conclusion (100 words)
- References (not included in Word count)
- Appendices (Optional section, not included in Word count)
Important note:
- Use tasks A, B, C and D (in the Details of Tasks) for your analysis
- Use the dynamic alignment framework model for your synthesis
- Your recommended improvement programs should be based on the gaps (analysis-synthesis), and what you think should be done to ensure the company is moving toward its vision, mission and strategic goals
- Tables, figures and infographics are not included in your word count.
- Make sure you provide accurate referencing for both your analysis and synthesis components.