Assignment 2 – Semester
| Assessment | Due Date | Objectives | Weight | Category |
| Operations Plan
(Case-Study) |
Week 8, Part A
Friday @ 23.59 PM Week 12, Part B Friday @ 23.59 PM |
2,3,4 | 60% |
This item of assessment serves a summative purpose. |
Assessment Item 2: Operations Plan
This assessment targets the students’ knowledge of logistic concepts, terminology, functions and procedures and the ability to formulate solutions to logistic problems. Place yourself in the role of a newly hired operations manager for an international company where your job is to assess the business objectives and create a comprehensive operations-plan with key focus on the entire Value-Chain for your CEO. I.e., what you recommend doing and why, including comprehensive revenue-cost-profit outcome calculations.
Case Study: The Asombroso company
Submission: Part A – The Excel calculations (recommended to be completed
by Friday, Week 8 @ 23.59PM). This is a prerequisite to submit
Part B. You must complete Part A first since all Part B coverage,
recommendations, and decisions are interrelated and builds upon
your Part A results.
Part B – The Operations Plan. Due Friday, Week 12 @ 23.59PM.
This part is the research-intensive component where you learn to become a future Executive decision maker. You will further craft recommendations regarding how to operate your business supported by solid in-depth justification and rationale. Note that all parts of Part A must be included in the final report (as screen shots and placed in appendices).
Coverage and Duration: Part B 3,000 words (+/-10%) excluding a mandatory 1-page
Executive Summary, table of contents and supportive appendices
(max 40 pages) and all Part A Excel calculations. These are not
part of the word count. Diagrams, pictures, and graphs must be in
the body of the text (also excluded from the word count).
Group or Individual: Individual assessment
Optional or Compulsory: Compulsory
Learning outcomes: AoL 2, 3, 4: KS 1.2; HO 2.2; PC 3.1.
Format: Written report: 12 pt. Times New Roman; 1.5 line spacing; 1-inch margins; APA-5 referencing required; Word document.
Instructions:
- First, read and analyse the provided case study at least 3-5 times to understand your tasks.
- Second, complete all Part A components (the Excel workbooks).
- Third, complete all the mandatory appendices below. These provide you with an overall, necessary, and foundational context-based knowledge. It is further a tool to create an operations-plan with a focused systematic approach. It also covers associated models (risk assessment, tactical procurement plan), and instructions (mapping the input- and the output side of the value-chain) so that you have an in-depth understanding of what the different solutions results in.
- Four, compile your insight based on the findings from your appendix-based research and start drafting your report. Present realistic recommendations on what you (being the operations manager) should do to meet the business objectives and to manage the overall situation and its challenges (including at least one key topic from each of the unit topics listed below). Create a checklist to remember addressing all the objectives.
- Five, remember to address the below lecture topics in appropriate parts of Part B. You do not need to discuss or repeat any theoretical aspects. Applications only.
| Lecture Topics & Textbook | Readings |
| Unit topics that you MUST apply in A2. | |
| a) Customer Service: how to ensure this from a logistic perspective. | Ch. 7 |
| b) Inventory: classification and inventory-related costs.
c) Ordering: When to Order and How Much?
|
Ch. 8 |
| d) Logistic Network Configuration: what LN configuration do you need to meet all objectives? How should you implement it?
e) Facility Location Decisions: where should you locate all LN nodes? f) Finding the Optimal Location: where should you locate your HQ and your main warehouse/DC?
|
Ch. 9
|
| g) Types of Warehouses & DC’s: what type of WH/DCs do you need to meet your objectives?
h) Number of Warehouses & DC’s: how many do you need to meet your objectives?
|
Ch. 10 |
| i) Packaging: Fundamentals of packaging – what do you need?
|
Ch. 11 |
| j) Transportation attributes and mode selection: what type of transportation attributes and categories do you need? Why? How many of each? Where to use them etc?
|
Ch. 12 |
- Six, remember to support your recommendations and arguments with additional sources (quality information from e.g., academic journals, industry reports, business news sources, corporate- and watch-dog websites, ranking institutes etc). Remember to include the financial outcomes (the excel workbooks) in your rationale.
- Space allocation example: once you have completed your foundational research you can start compiling your insight and commence writing your report. How you structure it is individual but remember it must read as a professional business report. Do not recapitulate the case-study or theoretical concepts. Suggestion: (700 words) target country geography and specific logistic challenges, target country market conditions, location of customer clusters, suitable means of transportation in target country. Then, write your recommendations to meet the case objectives (800 words); justification of the recommendations (1000 words); performance (logistical and financial) outcomes and results of your decisions (500 words). Use support from all your appendices.
- Seven, when you are 100% ready to submit, you write the Executive Summary. Now finalize and submit your complete work (both Part B and Part A). NOTE: your work will be marked as incomplete without the Part A being included in the final report (included as screenshots in an appendix). Note that an ‘Executive Summary’ is not an abstract!
Note: the grading procedure is discretionary and considers for example the quality of the report; how professional it is; content covered and its value contribution for the client and the reader (i.e., your 2x bosses from the case-study). See also the grading rubric on CANVAS.
An assessment submitted after the applicable due date will be unmarked and receive a grade of 0%. If special circumstances prevent you from meeting the assessment due date, you can apply for an extension. If you do not have got an extension approval beyond the 48 hours grace period, or if you await to have an extension application approved, you must submit the work you have completed (regardless of its level of completion) by the due date. Such submission will be marked against the assessment criteria which enable the student to potentially receive partial grades should their extension application not be successful.
Appendix A ‘Map of the Target Market (country)’
How to complete: Research (for example but not limited to) distances (km) of all key locations. E.g., N-S, E-W, and capitol to each border, distance in kilometres and travel-time from the location choice of your HQ/main warehouse(s) to minimum five of your key customer clusters.
Appendix B Ease of doing Business.
How to complete: Research (for example but not limited to) various indexes and write your interpretation of the target country’s performance, challenges, and contextual consequences from this perspective.
Do not forget to write a summary paragraph of this section that address what it means in this case e.g., what it translates to for your business decisions.
Appendix C ‘Logistics Performance Index’
How to complete: Research (for example but not limited to) the above index and write your interpretation of the target country’s performance, challenges, and contextual consequences from this perspective.
Do not forget to write a summary paragraph of this section that address what it means in this case e.g., what it translates to for your business decisions.
Appendix D ‘Risk Assessment’ (RA)
How to complete: research, assess, and describe the Top-5 potential risks for this venture. Then place [drag-and-drop] the numbered stars (labelled 1-5) to the applicable grid-position. That is, locate each star regarding the probability of an event to occur and the level of severity (consequence) for the company should it occur. Finally, describe and recommend how to mitigate each of these risks.
Short-term (ST) = <6 months Medium-term (MT) = 12-24 months Long-term (LT) = >24 months
| R. # | Time
frame |
Risk description: | Recommended Mitigation: |
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1 |
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2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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5 |
Appendix E ‘Tactical Procurement Plan’ (TPP)
How to use TPP (i.e., the Kraljic) Model: Once you selected your market entry mode into the host-nation marketplace, decide what properties each of your three core input categories (the fruit/berries; milk/cream/sugar; packaging material) display. For instance, whether packaging have a high/low importance in combination of high/low complexity. Map these input categories into correct quadrant [drag-and-drop] and assess the impact in your logistic plan (report).
Do not forget to write a summary paragraph of this section that address what it means in this case e.g., what it translates to for your business decisions.
Appendix F ‘Customer Description and Cluster Locations’
How to complete: Research the number of target customers that exists in the Host (target) market (country). Checkpoint: who are your customers? How many customers do you need to reach your revenue targets? Remember to be specific regarding customer categories. You should only research the specified category. Then, plot them on a map to ‘see’ where your clusters are. I.e., in which cities/areas/regions do most of your customers (not the end-users) reside? Then measure the distance from your main HQ/Warehouse/Distribution center to each of these customer clusters (i.e., by road (km and time); train, sea, air cargo).
Do not forget to write a COMPREHENSIVE paragraph of this section that address what it means in this case e.g., what it translates to for your business decisions. Use your Excel calculations to complete this section.
Appendix G ‘Logistic Network and Locations’
How to complete: given your overall business needs (number of customers to service, inventory etc.), what type of warehouses do you need (inventory aspects)? How many warehouses do you need (locations)? What category of warehousing do you need (technical needs)? What type of technologies do you need in each facility?
Do not forget to write a COMPREHENSIVE paragraph of this section that address what it means in this case e.g., what it translates to for your business decisions.
Appendix H ‘Description of Transportation modes’
How to complete: Use all the information from the other indexes/sources/research and describe what type of transportation mix you need ensure your logistic objectives. Remember that you will always need more than one transportation mode or type.
Do not forget to write a COMPREHENSIVE paragraph of this section that address what it means in this case e.g., what it translates to for your business decisions.
Appendix I ‘Description of your Value-Chain’
How to complete: Describe (two-three paragraphs) each of the primary and secondary value-chain steps/components. That is, how they apply in this case (i.e., your operations plan). Cover how you intend to design, operate, and manage each of them. Remember to cover both capacity (input and production) and capability (output to serve your market). Be specific as they are NOT the same thing.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT APPENDIX (hence this is why it is the last one to complete). ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED THIS APPENDIX, YOU NOW HAVE ALL INFORMATION NEEDED TO COMPLETE (i.e., write) the A2 report.
Do not forget to write a COMPREHENSIVE paragraph of this section that address what each value-chain step means in this business case. That is, how each VC set-up meats your business objectives (see Case-Study) and therefore supports all your business decisions.
Appendix J ‘Entry Mode Discussion’
How to complete: Discuss and explain why you do not believe alternative ‘B’ or ‘C’ would work in this IB context (see the case-study), and whether any strategic differences between alternative ‘A’ and ‘D’ exists. Hence, now that you have completed the core research and to meet all the case studies objectives, you should be able to deepen your understanding and appreciation for how the different entry modes functions in a given IB context. This discussion should also help you decide your final entry mode recommendation to complete this assignment.
