Assignment
MIS313 – Strategic Supply Chain Management - Trimester 1 2021 Assessment Task 1 – Part A - Case Study Report and Complex Diagrams; Part B Feedback Reflection – Individual Assignment DUE DATE AND TIME: Wednesday, 12 May, by 8:00pm (AEST) PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: Part A (45%), Part B (5%) WORD COUNT: Part A (2000 words, complex diagrams), Part B (500 words) INTERIM MILESTONES: Last date to self-register/change seminar: Sunday, 21 March, 8:00pm (AEST). Students who cannot attend seminars or commit to a seminar day/time, contact the Unit Chair for an alternative to attending seminars. Drafts of Part A Sections 2 & 3 by Sunday 21 March, 8:00pm (AEST). Week 3 seminars give ‘on the right track?’ feedback on Section 2 for half the students, Week 4 seminars on Section 3 for the remaining the students. Record company choice (Option 1) / submit confirmation form (Option 2) by Sunday, 28 March, 8:00pm (AEST). Drafts of Part A Section 4 & Section 5 (metric/strategic aspects) by Sunday 11 April, 8:00pm (AEST). Week 5 seminars give ‘on the right track?’ feedback on Section 4 for half the students, Week 6 seminars on Section 5 for other students. Drafts of Part A Section 5 (operational aspects) by Sunday 25 April, 8:00pm (AEST). Week 7 seminars give ‘on the right track?’ feedback on Section 5 for half the students, Week 8 seminars on Section 5 for the remaining the students. Description This is an individual assessment where you will be a junior consultant for ConsultantCo. The aim of this assessment is for you to apply supply chain management and logistics knowledge (GLO1 Discipline-specific knowledge) to a company: • reviewing a specified subset of the company’s supply chain practices (GLO5 Problem Solving); • evaluating a problem with the practices and associated solution (GLO5 Problem Solving); and • evaluating the social and environmental responsibility with the practices and the solution (GLO8 Global Citizenship); • building capacity to seek, interpret accurately and act upon feedback to improve problem solving skills (GLO5 Problem Solving). Page 2 of 13 You will source a client for ConsultantCo – either a unique company from a specified list provided you will research (option 1) or a real company you will interview (option 2). You will then prepare a report to be evaluated by a senior consultant (i.e. a Deakin academic) of ConsultantCo. This is similar to real consultancies where junior consultants’ work for an external client is evaluated by senior consultants. The report is therefore not for the client. The report instead must meet the requirements expected by ConsultantCo. After you submit the assignment for evaluation (marking) by a senior consultant (Deakin academic), you can create a version of the report that meets the client’s needs if necessary (Option 2). The two parts of this single individual assessment are as follows: • Part A – a Case Study Report comprising a text word limit of 2,000 addressing ConsultantCo’s requirements in the table below, plus a minimum of one (1) complex diagram. • Part B – a Feedback Reflection Report (text word limit of 500, no diagrams) on how you sought, interpreted accurately and used feedback to improve your Case Study Report (Part A). Specific Requirements Part A – Recording a company choice (Option 1) / selecting a company (Option 2) There are two options for selecting a company on which do write the Part A Case Study Report. Option 1 involves selecting a unique company from a list of large (often multinational) companies, which has not been selected by another student. Instructions/steps on how to record your choice can be found under the Option 1 Company Selection Tool menu option found under the Content tab, Assessment Resources and then Assessment 1. Only students who record a unique company selection using the Option 1 instructions can use that company. You will then research that company and its industry to meet the ConsultantCo requirements below. You can change the company (up to the end of Week 3), but from the list provided and only if the new company has not already been recorded by another student. Option 2 is for students who want to use a real company from any country which they do not own/manage and which no other student is using. Students cannot own/manage the company, because GLO5 Problem Solving requires interviewing a client including the owner/manager. It cannot be the same company as another student because Part A will be too similar, and potentially guilty of collusion (Academic Misconduct). It can be a company in which you work. Option 2 is high risk due to COVID-19 because even if owner/ managers agree, they can later change their mind, delay interviewing, etc. Further, Option 1 will have comparatively less workload because Option 2 can be time-consuming (e.g. many owner/managers might say no, interviewing takes time, etc). Option 2 is therefore at the student’s own risk (e.g. no extensions). The owner/manager must sign a confirmation form (see Content tab, then Assessment Resources, then Assessment 1) before interviews can start. A franchise (e.g. pizza store) and a store/department/division run by a large company with different owners/managers will be considered different companies. Ask the owner/manager if they have already signed the confirmation form for another student. If yes, you must select another company. If you have not finished the interviews/confirmation by Week 3, you must change to Option 1 because you will be a high risk not completing. Work on Option 1 in parallel as a back-up. Page 3 of 13 Students are required to select a unique (or different) company, in the case of Option 1 or for Option 2, because Part B of the assignment requires that drafts of students’ Part A sections will be shown by staff during the weekly seminars for ‘on the right track?’ feedback. Selecting different companies means there is no risk of students copying your work for four reasons. First, there is no benefit of copying because the sections of the Part A Case Study Report will be different for each company. Second, copying other students’ work is considered Academic Misconduct and can incur severe penalties including zero for the assignment. Third, if any student decides to risk a severe Academic Misconduct penalty by copying, staff will know the original author of the work because the original author will be the one who submitted the draft. Fourth, students are not permitted to copy the work of other students, nor record seminars in any form when other students’ drafts are shown and, if suspected or caught doing so, will be reported to the Academic Integrity Committee. See the “interim milestones” and the Part B details below for further information. In the assignment requirements below, the selected company (either Option 1 or Option 2) will be referred to as “the client”, and will be considered as the company you have sourced for ConsultantCo. Part A – ConsultantCo requirements for the Case Study Report Table 1 below summarises the structure and requirements for the Part A Case Study Report expected by ConsultantCo. ConsultantCo provides this structure because the assignment is complex. The structure provides a good balance of broad guidance (i.e. high-level section headings) with flexibility (e.g. the content written specifically about the chosen client). Further, many real-life consultancies have a “house-style” for reports, so providing a structure is consistent such an industry practice. The Part A Case Study Report will focus on a single product type which you (and owner/manager for Option 2) select, and which the client sources from a tier 1 supplier. You can select any product type, so long as the client buys it regularly (at least monthly). These criteria are necessary because: • Selecting more than one product type increases the complexity of the assignment too much, especially if the client uses different sourcing practices for different product types. • Where a client uses the same sourcing practices for different product types, the report will be applicable to the other product types, and thus a single product type is sufficient. • Students will have difficulty developing a report with sufficient detail to meet ConsultantCo’s requirements if they select a product type which is purchased less frequently than monthly. • We focus on a product type (not a specific product brand, size, etc) because Option 2 clients are often reluctant to be more specific. For example, a restaurant might source “soft drink” of various brands, sizes and flavours. The product type in this example would be “soft drink”. Table 1 specifies ConsultantCo’s requirements for the Case Study Report, including the scope for client evaluation. This means some types of supply chain problems (e.g. parts of SOURCE and all of MAKE, DELIVER, RETURNS) and associated solutions, as well as some social and environmental responsibility issues, will be outside the scope and cannot be explored. The scoping is necessary because: • Deakin policy states that assignments must differ each trimester, which requires different scope or foci each year. Our approach is to focus on a different part of the SOURCE process and a different SCM metric each year. This is better than alternatives, including students only being allowed to pick companies from a different industry each year, or limiting choice of product type each year. Our approach achieves a good balance between flexibility for students (and real clients in the case of Option 2), and Deakin assignment policy. • Scoped requirements are common in industry. Further, such scoping means that feedback and answers to one student’s assignment drafts/questions will more likely help all students. Page 4 of 13 • The skills and knowledge that you (and the real client in the case of Option 2) gain from the doing the scoped assignment are applicable in other areas. For example, the solution evaluation relating to a specific product type within the specified part of SOURCE could potentially apply to other aspects of the client’s practices. You can consider if/how the solution examined within the scope of this report might apply to other client practices, but after the assignment has been completed. The word counts in Table 1 for each section are a guide only, and can be exceeded. That is, you have