BUSS 2054 – Principles of Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Study Period 5 2017
Assessment Task 2: Formal Report
1700 words (35% of total grade)
Your task is to address the following questions for a medical supply chain. You can read the given case study document, which is available from your Learnonline course site as an E-reading, or any other relevant information for this situation. Critically review the information and answer the following four (4) questions for this given case study in the discussion section.
The questions to be addressed in your discussion section are:
1. Describe the challenges of medical logistics within the context of logistics and supply chain management,
2. Describe and discuss the roles of logistics management in supply chain and operations management for medical logistics and in general practice,
3. Discuss the essential trade-offs in meeting the performance goals while minimising total costs in medical logistics context and in general practice,
4. Explain and discuss the role of logistics management or logisticians in medical logistics and supply chain in providing value to stakeholders.
Then provide recommendations on how these challenges faced by producers of medical devices and pharmaceutical organisations can be resolved
References: Provide a minimum of six (6) academic references (preferably no older than 2005). Four (4) of these must be refereed (peer reviewed or scholarly) academic journal articles.
Referencing style:
Please review the assessment help information prepared by the Library for your benefit at: http://guides.library.unisa.edu.au/c.php?g=169934&p=4997814
Use the Harvard UniSA referencing style in all your assessments. A guide to the Harvard UniSA style is found at: http://unisa.libguides.com/content.php?pid=224578&sid=1889060
Word limit: 1,700 words. 10% plus or minus the word limit is acceptable. The word limit only excludes the Executive summary and the list of references. If you exceed the 10% plus maximum limit, your grader will draw a line and will stop reading at that point.
Assignment template: As an aid, there a template to help you format your answer (found at the end of this document).
Marking criteria: The assignment marking criteria sheet is provided on your learnonline space. Be guided by the criteria and mark weightings given to each aspect of this assignment.
Assignment submission: Submit your assignment online via Gradebook. Only word document (.doc or .docx) is accepted. Please do not submit a coversheet as it will affect your Turnitin score. Just write your name, student number and the assignment title on the front page of your assignment as in the provided template. If you receive a high Turnitin score (above 15%- not including your reference section), please correct your assignment and save it with the same file name. Then re-submit your assignment via Gradebook.
Avoid the words “Bibliography” or ‘Reference List’ as headings only use “References” as a heading in order to help us reduce the Turnitin score matching the literature in your count.
Turnitin is a tool to help you learn to acknowledge (cite) the authors of your literature research and to acknowledge the words of other writers by using quotation marks “…”. See http://www.unisa.edu.au/ltu/integrity/default.asp
Late submission: Please note that assignments submitted after the due date, without an authorised extension, will receive a penalty of 10% a day deducted from the total available mark for the assignment for up to 7 calendar days. After 7 calendar days, the assignment will not be marked.
Delete this section above (pages 1 & 2 of this document) – before submitting your Assignment 2 on or before 3rd October – 9 am (Up to 10 AM on 3rd October we may tolerate. After that late penalties will be applied ). The link for submission will be available from 15th August.
Non deletion of these two pages (and other red coloured sentences in pages 3 to 6 of this document) will count towards your word count and will increase the Turnitin score! as well.
Please note: Not deleting the first two pages of this document and other red-coloured sentences in your submission will incur a reduction of marks (up to 10%).
Assessment Task 2 Template
(Use this template as a guide to format your assignment. This template is not compulsory)
Please delete all sections in red from this template before submission)
BUSS 2054 – Principles of Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Study Period 5 2017
Assessment Task 2: Formal Report
1700 words
Student Full Name
Student ID Number
Note – – all answers must be supported by literature evidence. This is a suggested template only, and you are free to choose any headings that are appropriate for this assignment.
(Please delete this section and all sections in red font from the template before submission)
Executive summary
This section contains a synopsis of your full report– 100 to 150 words (only maximum of 150 words – do not count towards your word count.) Complete/finalise this section last. This section should also clearly express the identified issues of Logistics and Supply Chain management in your given case study within two to three sentences. Although this section does not contribute to your word count, however, the marker will not read more than 150 words.
Introduction
This section contains a statement of the point of view that you have developed in response to the Case study (sometimes called the thesis statement) – 150 to 200 words– (write this Introduction, Executive summary and the conclusion sections- once you have answered all the other sections. Doing so will enable you to write good sentences that summarise your answer). Basically, it is a short summary of introducing the case study responses in your own words. All sentences in your report are to be clear and well written without any grammatical or spelling mistakes. Your report should be extremely well written with UK or Australian spelling- avoid the Microsoft default US spelling in some of your word software. Use appropriate headings and subheadings to highlight the reader your logical structure of your analysis in all sections of this report. Clarity of some sentences can be improved by avoiding “this”,” it’ etc. at the start of the sentence.
Background and business environment (or any appropriate sub heading of your preferences)
In this section, you will illustrate your in-depth understating on this case study and the issues (about 200 to 250 words; 2-4 paragraphs) clearly, adequately, concisely and comprehensively with a good structure. You will relate these discussions with a good reflection on your course content from Topics 1 to 10, whichever is appropriate. You may have a few separate headings for these discussions in this section as well. Having better and shorter headings for these sections will be counted towards “2.2. Logical planning and sequence” on your feedback form.
Discussion Question 1 (or any appropriate sub heading of your preference- e.g. Hospital/ Medical logistics Challenges)
In this section you will describe and discuss the challenges the medical organisations facing in the context of logistics management and supply chain management in relations to this case study context and in general practice with examples (about 225 to 250 words; 2-4 paragraphs).
Having a better and shorter heading for these four (4) discussion sections will be counted towards “4.1.Overall presentation” on your feedback form. Please do not use this section heading as “Discussion Question 1’ etc.; then you will get a poor grade for “4.1.Overall presentation”.
Discussion Question 2 (or any appropriate sub heading of your preference- e.g. Roles of Logistics and Supply Chain management in ~~~)
In this section, you will describe and discuss the rolls of logistics management and supply chain management in relations to this case study context and in general practice with examples (about 225 to 250 words; 2-4 paragraphs).
Discussion Question 3 (or any appropriate sub heading of your preference- e.g. Organisational performance trade-offs in ~)
Here, answer the discussion question within the context of case study and in general practice (about 225 to 250 words; 2-4 paragraphs). Strengths and weaknesses concisely and comprehensively discussed. The analysis should have references supporting clearly stated arguments.
Discussion Question 4 (or any appropriate sub heading of your preference- e.g. Role of logisticians ~ in adding value to ~)
In this section, you will describe and discuss how the role of the logistics management activities particularly in medical logistics and supply chain in adding value to the organisations such as NGO’s (Non-government organisations) and Governments. You may critically compare and analyse the Hospitals supply chains with other business supply chain or other supply chains with examples (about 225 to 250 words; 2-4 paragraphs). Strengths and weaknesses concisely and comprehensively discussed. The analysis should have references supporting clearly stated arguments.
In all of your answers to these discussion questions, all ideas are to be linked and critically examined. You need to link theory and/or applications in your main discussion sections as well as in the recommendations.
Conclusion
This is where you will summarise what you have found through applying your literature research and the restatement of the overall point of view that has been developed in your own words. (About 250 words; 2 to 3 paragraphs). All arguments should be drawn into excellent conclusion, and the report has to have a good logical flow thus makes it as an interesting read. It is advisable to write the ‘Executive summary’ and the ‘Conclusion’ sections after you have completed the main body by answering all the discussion questions.
Recommendations
This section contains a summary of brief recommendations– maximum 200 words on how the challenges can be overcome or provide potential solutions for Hospital supply chain/ medical logistics issues (in relation to the Topics 2 to 10 of this course). You need to establish the rationale for the recommendations in your main body, and that rationale is to be supported by academic references as well.
Please note, Conclusions and recommendations should be written in individual sections, not summarised together.
Expected word count= 150+200+225*4 +250+200= 1700
References
Provide a minimum of eight (8) academic references (preferably no older than 2005). Four (4) of these must be refereed academic journal articles. Do not use the wordings such as “Reference list” or “List of references” or “Bibliography” as this section heading. Then your references will be counted by Turnitin software as well. Only use the word “References.”
All in-text referencing needs to comply with the Harvard UniSA Referencing System. If you are unsure how to use this system, you can find the Harvard UniSA Referencing guide at http://unisa.libguides.com/content.php?pid=224578&sid=1889060
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