To prepare for this Individual Assignment, read Required Learning Resources for Week 3.
For this assignment, you have a choice between Options 1 and 2 below. You are expected to write a report of 1,500 words for either option. Your report is due in Week 5.
Option 1: Inventory management
For your assessment, visit a major supermarket and:
- Identify where products are running out (especially special offers and fresh foods).
- Think about the types of products that are running out and think of problems in the supply chain that could explain these shortages.
- Think of actions that major retailers can do to take to ensure that shortages are kept to a minimum.
- Choose another competing supermarket and see how availability differs.
You are then required to write a report on your findings. Consider the following as part of your report:
- An explanation of problems in the supply chain that could explain the identified shortages
- A discussion of the actions that could keep shortages to a minimum
- A benchmarking analysis of the two organisations you have visited (focussing on the differences in availability and reasons for the differences)
- The influence of changing consumer preferences on the food supply chain
- Fundamental challenges faced by the food supply chain
Option 2: Supply chain disruption
Write a report that analyses supply chain disruption and propose strategies that will enable multinational organisations to address such disruptions. You should identify a recent natural disaster, identify and analyse the effects of the disaster on businesses in that geographical region and, furthermore, propose improvement strategies. As an example, you could choose to analyse the earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Japan in March 2011. In March 2011, an earthquake measuring magnitude 8.9 struck the northeast coast of Japan, triggering a massive tsunami. This mostly affected Honshu, the main Japanese island. The tsunami led to a great loss of lives and property and did massive damage to infrastructure. Several multinational businesses with operations in Japan also suffered disruptions in their operations.
For this assignment, you should:
- Identify a similar disaster.
- Identify a business (or businesses) that was affected by the disaster.
- Analyse the impact of the disaster on their supply chain(s).
- Evaluate the response(s) of the business organisation(s).
- Propose strategies for dealing with such events in the future.
By Day 7 of Week 5 submit your Individual Assignment.
Be sure to read over your Individual Assignment before submitting it to your Instructor. Make sure the spelling and grammar are correct, and the language, citing and referencing you use when providing your opinion are appropriate for academic writing.