Assignment 2
Aim
This assignment aims to develop students’ understanding of the strategic elements that impact supply chain performance and help supply chain partners to obtain a competitive position in the market. This is achieved by asking students to investigate the supply chain of a brand product (to be chosen by the group) with a view to identifying its unique logistics elements (e.g., work flow processes, policy on location of warehouses, warehousing and inventory management strategies, collaborative arrangements between supply chain partners, and manner in which information and communication technologies are used in logistics and supply chain operations) that have contributed to the success of the company. In this assignment, students are required to form groups of four to five members.
Note: The group we choose is IKEA. This is no changeable.
Group Investigative Report
Students are required to document the findings of the investigation in a Group Investigative Report of length of 2750 words. The report will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Executive Summary (No more than 100 words) (5%)
- Description of the brand product supply chain investigated (10%)
- Identification of unique supply chain and logistics elements that have helped the brand product achieve its market position (30%)
- Discussion and explanation of how (and why) the identified supply chain and logistics elements have contributed to helping the brand product achieve its competitive market position (35%)
- Conclusion and lessons learnt from investigation (10%)
- Clarity of writing, including report organization and use of diagrams and charts to illustrate argument (5%)
- Referencing, at least 10 references must be used (5%)
In this assignment, you need to identify its unique logistics elements but you just need to focus 2 or 3 elements from these 5 elements: 1. work flow processes. 2. policy on location of warehouses. 3. warehousing and inventory management strategies. 4. collaborative arrangements between supply chain partners. 5. manner in which information and communication technologies are used in logistics and supply chain operations. After that, you need to use some examples to prove the elements that you chosen. And explain how do these 2 or 3 elements have contributed to the success of IKEA. Furthermore, more than 10 references are required.
