Assessment 1
Preparation
Take time to research and review systems mapping strategies
for operations and supply chain systems.
Select a company to use as the basis of this assessment and
other assessments in this course. As you do so, consider the following
recommendations:
Select a company with a supply chain that ignites your
interest: a U.S.-based retailer with clothes manufactured in Taiwan, or an auto
manufacturer based in Japan with plants in Alabama and dealerships in England.
Many interesting supply chain scenarios are awaiting your investigation.
Select a company with accessible public information about
their supply chain. Look for published annual reports, articles, and news
reports about the company in national magazines and periodicals; information on
the company Web site; recent books about the company or its industry authored
by leaders in that field; and financial evaluations and statistics provided by
agencies like Moody’s and Standard and Poors or governmental entities like the
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Research the global supply chain for your selected company,
including its sourcing of raw materials, transportation process, manufacturing
centers, distribution channels, and points of sale. Identify 4–6 sources that
help you understand your business’s supply chain and that you can draw upon to
complete this assessment.
Instructions
This assessment consists of three parts you will fuse
together to create a complete supply chain system report.
Part 1: Create a detailed narrative that describes your
selected business’s global supply chain. Be sure to identify details including
the sourcing of raw materials, the transportation process, all manufacturing
centers, the distribution channels, and the points of sale.
Part 2: Using the information in Part 1, create a detailed,
holistic, interactive systems map for your business’s supply chain. On the map,
be sure to:
Clearly identify points of reinforcement and advantage
within the supply chain.
Identify internal and external tasks and accountabilities
across the supply chain.
Part 3: Describe the systems dynamics that impact and shape
this global supply chain. As you do so, consider the following questions:
What barriers exist in in this supply chain? What custom
laws and practices have to be considered in shipping mode choice and countries
for product sales?
What are the “trigger points” to move from one
shipping mode to another (that is, moving from slower rail mode to air freight
with more cost)?
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Any resources or citations must be formatted
according to current APA style and formatting standards. Refer to the
Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu for more information on APA
style.
Sources: A minimum of 4 sources is required.
Length: Your report should be 2–3 pages for all three parts
combined.
Font: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.
Assessment 2
To prepare for this assessment, conduct research about
customer satisfaction and experiences with the company you selected in
Assessment 1 to focus on for this course, along with impressions of the
company. To do so, look for customer satisfaction surveys, news articles,
opinion polls, and complaint logs.
Then, complete the following two parts and fuse them
together into one report:
Part 1: Conduct a SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities,
and threats) analysis for the supply chain of your selected company.
Investigate things that have attracted attention for going wrong, as well as
things that have reportedly gone right. Be sure to include the good as well as
the not-so-good; relate why the consumer, supplies, shippers, government
agencies, and third-party logistics and common carriers continue to do business
with this organization. Also be sure to identify areas that provide a strategic
advantage to your particular company and factors that provide a competitive
threat. Support your assertions with research, and include appropriate
citations. For example, a survey from a global supply chain organization may
rank how your chosen company or industry performs in key critical areas such as
shipping timeliness, damage, customer feedback, and opinion polls.
Part 2: Using the information from your SWOT analysis,
generate a list of recommendations that would improve the supply chain. As you
consider possible recommendations, reflect on details including transit,
manufacturing, storage, shipping, or product packaging/handling procedures.
Make sure your improvement ideas are realistic and would result in some savings
or business gain while still providing the consumer a product at the same level
of quality. Support your suggestions with information you found in your
research.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Any resources or citations must be formatted
according to current APA style and formatting standards. Refer to the
Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu for more information on APA
style.
Sources: 4–6 sources are required.
Length: Your report should be 2–3 pages total.
Font: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.
Assessment 3
Focusing on one aspect of the operations or supply chain in
the business you selected in Assessment 1, develop a plan to build a project
management team to manage that element of operations. Your plan should be
written as a guiding document for human resources decision makers within the
company and should include the following information:
A brief (1–2 paragraph) description of a specific project
within the global operations and supply chain of your selected business. Your
description should include the project team roles needed to manage this
specific project.
A description of each role needed on the team, including the
function that each role plays in this specific GOSCM project and how that role
contributes to the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain. Consider
(but do not necessarily limit yourself to) these key roles:
Logistics Manager.
Supply Chain Manager.
Comptroller.
Packaging Manager.
Operations Manager.
Quality Manager.
A list of critical skills needed by the members of the
project team and the specific skills needed for individual roles. As you compile
this list, keep in mind that members of project team, to varying degrees, also
work with support departments and cliental including transportation companies,
intermodal personnel, and regulatory agencies like border and customs
officials.
A list and explanation of the criteria you would use to
select your project management team. Be sure to address how you would ensure
skill diversity of the project management team.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of errors
that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Any resources or citations must be formatted
according to current APA style and formatting standards. Refer to the
Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu for more information on APA
style.
Length: Your plan should be approximately 2 pages.
Font: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.
Assessment 4
To prepare for this assessment, research the ethical and
quality management foundations of your selected company’s approach to supply
chain management, as well as the ethics codes and quality assurance practices
of others in the industry.
For this assessment, assume you have been asked to create a
brief overview of the ethical and quality assurance foundations of your
company. Drawing on the research you conducted about what is already in place
in your company and on your knowledge of its supply chain system, as well as
your understanding of practices in the industry at large, create a report of
recommendations for the ethical and quality management foundations of your
selected company.
In your report, identify the following:
Quality benchmarks for your company: What they are, where
they are on the supply chain, and who oversees them?
One or two efforts per benchmark that could be instituted to
ensure continuous improvement of these benchmarks.
A working definition of ethical practice for your company in
regard to supply chain management.
An explanation of how this concept of ethics intersects with
quality management in the company’s supply chain.
The ethical policies that employees, suppliers, and contract
workers must adhere to
An explanation of how and when employees, suppliers, and
contractors are trained in these policies.
The procedures in place to report and address ethical and
quality assurance policy violations.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Any resources or citations must be formatted
according to current APA style and formatting standards. Refer to the
Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu for more information on APA
style.
Sources: 3–5 sources are required.
Length: Your report should be 3–5 pages.
Font: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.
Assessment 5
Conduct research and then craft a report suitable for
distribution within your selected company detailing how your business manages
operations in the movement of products across country borders.
Your report should provide details on the following as they
relate to one part of the global supply chain of your business:
World Trade Organization standards and requirements: What
product standardization is in place? What paperwork must be completed? What
information must be shared?
Government officials and agencies that must be consulted on
a local and national level: Who are key players and offices to be in touch with
about your business?
Local and national safety and performance guidelines: What
standards must your product meet, and where?
International shipping and transport issues for each country
of product movement: What information infrastructures are in place to manage
global operations and supply chains?
Contacts: Who within the business is the contact for each
element above? How, where, or when does that contact or do those contacts fit
into the supply chain map?
Be sure to support your claims with evidence. If you cannot
find the actual information for your company, look at what is done in the
industry as a whole and base your answer on that, making clear in your report
that your answer is based on industry standards.
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Any resources or citations must be formatted
according to current APA style and formatting standards. Refer to the
Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu for more information on APA
style.
Sources: 3–5 sources are required.
Length: Your report should be 3–4 pages.
Font: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.
