Individual Project:

(Worth 20% of your final grade)

Note: Although there are some research components to this case, there is also a requirement for you to
do a significant amount of analysis. Please make sure that you display evidence that you have done the
analysis (don’t rely on merely quoting (research) articles). Keep in mind the focus of this project is
supply chain and operations management (NOT marketing).

Total length should be between 1,200-2,000 words.

When submitting, make sure:

a. When using any sources, do not forget to cite inside your paper and then include your sources in
the references.
b. Your paper and references should follow an APA formatting.
c. Clearly mark what question you are answering.
d. When submitting submissions #2 and #3, please track your changes from previous submissions
(in Word, go to Review and set “Track changes” to ON).

Select a company of your choice.

Make sure you discuss the following points:

Submission #1

1. A brief introduction about your company, including the main products and services that are
offered by your project company.
2. Competitive strategy of the company
3. Which competitive priorities are most important for the company?
4. Which competitive priority is least important to the company?
5. What are the order winners in your chosen industry?
6. What are the order qualifiers for your company?

Submission #2

Make corrections to your previous submission according to the feedback received. In addition, answer
the following questions:

7. Sketch a supply chain of your company.

8. Suppliers [Module 7]:
 Approximately, how many suppliers does your company have?
 What are the main locations of your suppliers (if in other continents, stay at the
country level; if local suppliers (North America), if possible, indicate provinces /
States).
 What are the main selection criteria used in choosing suppliers to begin with?
 Does your company monitor suppliers on an ongoing basis? If yes, explain.
 Does your company use any of the sourcing models presented in the Sourcing
matrix we have studied in class? If yes, explain.
 [Optional] List anything else that is important to your company and is related to
suppliers.
9. Transportation/distribution/inventory management [Module 6]:
 What kind of facilities does your company have (warehouses, manufacturing plants,
distribution centers, other facilities, if applicable). What is the importance of these
facilities?
 What are the locations of your company’s facilities? Stay at the high level.
  What modes of transportation does your company use?
 How does your company view inventory? Do they stock on raw materials or bring
them in Just-In-Time?
 What is the distribution model used by your company – direct-to-store or
traditional?
 What inventory management models are being used by your company?
10. Manufacturing [Modules 3, 4, 6, 8, 9]
 Does your company use MTO/MTS/ATO? Explain.
 Where is your company located on the product-process matrix? Explain.
 How does capacity play a role in your company? Does capacity management present
them with any special challenges?
 Does your company need and use excess capacity? Explain.
 What forecasting components are present in the demand for your products (trend,
seasonal, cyclical, random components)? Does your company use short/medium, or
long-term forecasting? What are the difficulties in forecasting demand for your
company?
 Does your company use lean/JIT/6-Sigma techniques? Explain.
 [Optional] List anything else that is important to your company and related to
manufacturing.

Submission #3 (final report)

Make corrections to your previous submission according to the feedback received. In addition, answer
the following questions. ( in final draft you need to present the entire project Not in a Q & A format.
Have a research paper in APA format with all requirements such as introduction, abstract conclusion, list
of contents etc.)

11. Identify an ‘unknown-unknown’ significant supply chain risk your company is exposed to.
How do they mitigate this risk? (Refer to module 7 material and to the pdf file posted in the
final individual submission dropbox).
12. Identify a ‘known-unknown’ significant supply chain risk your company is exposed to. How
do they mitigate this risk? (Refer to module 7 material and to the pdf file posted in the final
individual submission dropbox).

Key Dates:

There will be two intermediate deliverables for this project on which you will receive a formative
feedback.

Deliverable Value Description

(of final grade)
#1 5 Items 1-6 (Assessed primarily on quality of critical thinking and
writing. Secondarily on “correctness”)
#2 10 Items 7-10
(Assessed on: critical thinking, writing, correctness, response to
feedback)
Final Report 5 Entire project (Not in a Q & A format. Have a research paper in APA
format with all requirements such as introduction, abstract
conclusion, list of contents etc.)

Note:

You must get approval for your topic prior to beginning your report (otherwise you will receive 0).
No two individuals may choose the same topic – the first one to claim the topic owns the topic. Please
ensure that you email your topic choice by the deadline. (Note: you could face a penalty of 10% for late
submission)