Reference no: EM132382302

OMGT1053 Supply Chain Management Strategy Assignment - RMIT University, Australia

Assignment Details -

Assignment 1 - Group qualitative investigation

Form a group of not more than FOUR (4) students for this assignment. The same group will collaborate in Assignment 2 as well unless prohibited by circumstances.

Each group will be assigned a topic - a resource, capability or function commonly found in a supply chain, e.g., information systems and technology - to investigate, and discuss, via an investigation report and a group presentation video file, how companies can leverage this resource, capability or function in their supply chains to gain competitive advantage. Your task is to understand how companies can make use of the resource, capability or function under investigation in supply chain management so as to support their supply chain strategies and to achieve the set objective, i.e., efficiency or responsiveness or a combination of both. To support your arguments, you need to provide in-depth analysis of at least one company, which is successful in making use of the resource or capability in supply chain management, as evidence. This will form the centre of the investigation report and the group presentation video file.

For example, if a group has been assigned to look at how information systems and technology can improve supply chain performance of a firm hence giving it a competitive advantage in the trade or a leading position in the industry, students can consider the following:

1. Analyse from a theoretical perspective (i) what information systems and technology are referring to in the supply chain domain; (ii) what activities are involved or how they are implemented; (iii) how they can add value to operation or goods and service of a company; (iv) what the latest development in information systems and technology is; and (v) how a company can leverage information systems and technology to gain competitive advantage. For this part, the analysis needs to be comprehensive and covers all possible areas of a supply chain that can benefit from the use of information systems and technology. Relevant references should be given to support the statements.

2. Use a relatively well-known company (or few companies if deemed appropriate) to support the claims made in (1) above. For instance, students can use Wal-Mart as an example to discuss in detail (with facts, statistics, summary tables, figures, and diagrams, etc. to aid the discussion) how the company made use of information systems and technology to give itself a competitive edge. During the discussion, students can give a brief background of Wal-Mart prior to discussing how the company has invested in information systems and technology earlier in its history of development to improve operational efficiency and visibility.

They can also elaborate on Wal-Mart's insight and endeavour in investing in satellite network, data processing centre, barcode and RFID technologies and how these investments have significantly improved the efficiency and/or responsiveness of Wal-Mart's supply chain thus giving the company a leading position in the trade.

3. Compare real-world practices (i.e., the activities undertaken by the example company) against theories (i.e., the theoretical discussion about the resource, capability or function under investigation) during the presentation and in the investigation report so as to make your arguments convincing. In this regard, a summary table comparing the various theoretical benefits of the resource or capability under discussion against the actual practices in the example company should be shown.

In brief, Assignment 1 is a focused investigation of a particular aspect of the supply chain management illustrated with successful implementation of the function in question to gain competitive advantage by a real company (or companies) as example. The whole idea is to link the theories, concepts, approaches, techniques you have learned from this course with the actual practices in the real world. Therefore, a very general and shallow description of the assigned topic or a flimsy illustrative example will NOT meet the expected standard of this assignment and can result in very low marks. Students should imagine themselves as a group of researchers investigating the topic from a theoretical viewpoint and trying to use real-world examples to support their arguments. The investigation has to be in-depth and thorough (after all, it is only one aspect of a supply chain and therefore greater attention can be afforded). The presentation and discussion have to be concise yet comprehensive and convincing.

This assignment can be mainly a desktop research with most of the data and information sourced from the public domain or a full-fledged study with primary data collection (interviews and document review) from the example company if possible. As such, there is no fixed or so-called best approach to investigating the assigned topic. Students are encouraged to use lateral thinking during the analysis and be liberal in presenting their findings in whatever way they deem appropriate (as long as it is logical, intriguing and convincing). Nevertheless, it is expected that the investigation report and the group presentation video file will be in-depth, professional, and interesting to audience and readers. After all, this is an assignment of a final-year capstone subject. By now students should have ample experiences and skills in churning out a quality assignment which meets the requirements and is up to the expected standard.

The investigation report and the group presentation video file will be assessed primarily from the following aspects:

• Richness of information presented/reported;
• Organisation of presentation/report;
• Application of relevant theories, concepts, approaches, and techniques learned from the course;
• Depth of analysis;
• Adequacy of evidence to support arguments and conclusions;
• Appropriate example company used and relevant elaboration given;
• Presentation/Report writing skills; and
• Efforts invested in the assignment.

The investigation report and the group presentation video file carry the same weight in the assessment.

For the presentation video (must be in MP4 format), creativity and content are both important. Instead of using merely PowerPoint slides, which are mainly static and boring to the audience, students can use a mixture of presenter shots, pictures, summary tables, figures, harts, video clips, animation, interviews, debate, or even drama to present the content. In any case, a professional presentation up to the standard of formal business presentation is expected. All group members should participate in the presentation.

For the report, the following format should be used:

In addition to the Report Cover (a page that properly provides the course number and title, assignment number, title of the case, student number, student name, and submission date), the report should include the following:

(a) Executive Summary (Summarise the topic of the investigation, the findings - both the theoretical overview of the function and the actual practices of the case company, and the conclusions of the study in one page.)

(b) Table of Contents (List the sections and subsections with corresponding page numbers on a separate page.)

(c) List of Figures (List the figure numbers and captions with corresponding page numbers on a separate page whenever figures are used in the report. DO NOT include the figures per se.)

(d) List of Tables (List the table numbers and captions with corresponding page numbers on a separate page whenever tables are used in the report. DO NOT include the tables per se.)

(e) Overview of the Resource/Function under Investigation (Use your own words to give a brief overview of the assigned resource or function.)

(f) Objective (State the purpose of the investigation.)

(g) Theoretical Analysis (Present an in-depth analysis of the resource or function from a theoretical perspective covering the four aspects mentioned above.)

(h) Real-World Example (Present the findings of the investigation of a real-world company to provide evidence to show how the company leverages the resource or function to gain its competitive advantage.)

(i) Discussion (Demonstrate using adequate evidence that the points discussed in (g) can be witnessed in the company identified as an example. In this regard, comparison table (theories versus practices), figures, charts, etc., should be used as liberal as possible to aid the discussion.)

(j) Issues identified (Identify the issues encountered by the case company in leveraging the supply chain function and how these issues are resolved or overcome by the firm to achieve success.)

(k) Conclusions (Summarise the study and give insight based on the analysis and the findings.)

(l) References (List the references used in the investigation report in strict Harvard style.)

(m) Appendices (Show any additional information about the case company that will be useful for the reader to see how the firm leverages the supply chain function in question to gain its competitive advantage.)

The following should also be noted:

1. Use summary tables, charts, and figures where appropriate to aid your analysis and discussion. The figures and tables should be inserted in the sections and subsections immediately after they are mentioned instead of in the List of Figures and List of Tables.

2. All references, if any, must be provided in strict Harvard style.

3. The suggested word length of the report is 3,000 to 3,500. Longer or shorter report (within reasonable margins) is acceptable as long as it is professionally presented, comprehensive, thorough, and easy to follow. Also, all the required tasks as stated above must be completed.

4. The assessment of the assignment will be based mainly on the thoroughness of the investigation, comprehensiveness of the analysis, and convincingness of the evidence to support arguments as presented in the report. The more effort students invested in investigating the function and writing the report, the higher the marks will be. Doing only the minimum will certainly not be good enough and might lead to poor result.

Assignment 2 - Group quantitative case analysis

The same group working for Assignment 1 will continue to work together for Assignment 2 unless prohibited by circumstances. Any change in group composition, only when absolutely required, needs to obtain the prior approval of the course coordinator.

Read the case study "Production and Distribution Network for QuickClean" which is placed on Canvas. Develop an Excel workbook with multiple worksheets (i.e., models), each representing a supply network for the case company for a particular year under various scenarios. For each model, optimize the network configuration using Solver. Write a business report summarizing the case, the objectives of the study, the issues identified, and your analysis of the different network options under consideration, together with recommendations made and the conclusion reached. Answer each of the case questions separately in a separate section at the end of the report.

Show the mathematical formulation of the problem and the Solver setups of the optimization model involved in the appendix.

The following should be noted:

1. A formal business report is required.

2. In addition to the Covering Page (a page that properly provides the course number and title, assignment number, title of the case, student number, student name, and submission date), the report should include the following:

(a) Executive Summary (Summarise the case, the findings of analysis, and the recommendations in one page.)

(b) Table of Contents (List the sections and subsections with corresponding page numbers on a separate page.)

(c) List of Figures (List the figure numbers and captions, if any, with corresponding page numbers on a separate page.)

(d) List of Tables (List the table numbers and captions, if any, with corresponding page numbers on a separate page.)

(e) Summary of the Case (Use your own words to give a brief summary of the case in half a page.)

(f) Objectives (State the purposes of the study and what needs to be investigated in half a page.)

(g) Issues Identified (Analyse the information provided in the case to identify the issues faced by the company in half a page.)

(h) Network Option Analysis Analyse in one page the network options (i.e., scenarios) under consideration using the information provided in the case. Both the current (i.e., as-is) and the optimized (i.e., improved) configurations need to be worked out. While the as-is situation can be worked out using simple calculation, MS Solver will be needed to find the optimized solutions. Summary of findings of the scenario tests for the case questions should also be presented. NOTE: Only summaries of the analyses are needed in this section. Details of the analyses should be given in the Answers to the Case Questions section. Use summary tables to show the configurations and costs.)

(i) Recommendations (Recommend the best option to adopt based on the outcome of the analysis in half a page.)

(j) Conclusions (Summarise the study and give insight in half a page.)

(k) Answers to the Case Questions (Answer the case questions one by one in separate subsection with the question number clearly stated. DO NOT MERGE EVERYTHING into a big paragraph or essay. Marks will be deducted if answers to the case questions are not provided separately as required. Make full use of the information in the case and the model as a tool to help answer the questions. Assessment is based on how thorough the case analysis, whether the model has been appropriately used, and how relevant the answers to the case questions are.)

(l) References (List the references used in the report in strict Harvard style.)

(m) Appendices (Show all the calculations involved in making the recommendations.)

3. Use summary tables, charts, and figures where appropriate to aid your analysis and discussion. The figures and tables should be inserted in the sections and subsections immediately after they are mentioned instead of in the List of Figures and List of Tables.

4. All the Solver setup and calculation must be clearly shown in the appendices to the report. Use screen dumps of the spreadsheet or the Solver dialogue box to aid explanation where appropriate.

5. All references must be provided in strict Harvard style.

6. Students can also refer to the document entitled "Written reports and essays: Guidelines for referencing and presentation in RMIT Business" for advice and tips on how to write proper reports and essays.

7. For this case study, you are required to work out the total cost of the current situation (Question 1) and analyse and compare among supply network under different scenarios. As stated in the case, one scenario (Questions 2a and 2b) is to serve all the states from Melbourne only. The other option (Questions 3 and 4) is to add new plants in other cities. Another scenario (Questions 5 and 6) is to design a new network from scratch. Finally, there is an option to set up only one production line at each plant (Questions 7 and 8).There are pros and cons under each option and it is your job to find the best one for QuickClean. In doing so, you should make use of ALL the information provided (particularly the cost figures) and develop a Solver model for the network analysis. Once the model is verified and validated, you can use the model to work out the total cost of the current production network. Then the model can be used as a tool for scenario testing to help you answer the case questions. In addition to the scenario testing, you are also required to make a recommendation, upon reviewing the different options, on the long-term production and distribution network for QuickClean (Question 9).

8. The suggested word length of the report is 3,000 to 3,500 words. You need to learn to write concisely yet comprehensively. Make sure all the required tasks are completed or marks would be deducted.

9. The assessment of the assignment will be based mainly on the accuracy of the logic and the comprehensiveness of the analysis as presented in the report. The more effort students invested in analysing the case and writing the report the higher the marks will be. Only getting the correct answer in a spreadsheet will certainly not be good enough.

Attachment:- Supply Chain Management Strategy Assignment File.rar