Assessment Information/Brief 2022/23

To be used for all types of assessment and provided to students at the start of the module.
The information provided should be compatible with the detail contained in the approved
module specification although may contain more information for clarity.

Module title Global Supply Chain Management

CRN 53099/53101/53094

Level 7

Assessment title
Assignment (Report)
Weighting This assessment is worth 100% of the overall module mark.
withinmodule

Submission 28 October 2022, 4pm

deadlinedate and
time

Module Leader/Assessment set by

Dr Mandeep Saini, Room 619, Maxwell Building,
email: m.saini5@salford.ac.uk

How to submit
You should submit your assessment on via Turnitin. See submission instruction on
Blackboard.

Assessment Information/Brief
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 Assessment task details and instructions

The outbreak of COVID-19 has drawn attention to the vulnerability of global supply
chains. The disease has revealed how critical it is for businesses to have reliable and
efficient supply chains to maintain continuity of operations. COVID-19 has also shown
that disruptions in the supply chain can cause significant financial losses and even
threaten the viability of businesses. Several businesses have reported that the outbreak
has cost them significantly.
In addition to the COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 has further disrupted
the supply chain of goods and services globally. The conflict has caused delays and
higher costs for companies that rely on transporting goods across the border. Many
companies have had to reroute their shipments to avoid the conflict zone, which has
added extra time and cost to their operations. Some companies have had to suspend
operations altogether due to the disruptions.

Based on the above statement, you are asked to choose a sector/industry (e.g., food,
steel,healthcare, retail, services, automotive), and critically:

i. Assess the effects of the recent challenges in the supply chain structure of your
chosen industry.
ii. Evaluate how the industry dealt with (or coping with) supply chain
management issues between the year 2020 to date.
iii. Access and suggest how can advanced technologies be used to rehabilitate the
supply chain challenges of the specific industry.

For each question above, you should support your arguments by bringing into the
discussion 1-2 examples of companies that belong to the selected sector/industry. You will
also need to consider the following when completing your assignment:

• Quality of executive summary (does it give a brief summary of your paper for an
executive to read?)
• Establishment of relevant theory (e.g. how supply chain environments are
differentiated in the current situation?)
• Examples (is the examples focused on the current context and supply chain
environments)
• Allocation of credit and sources used (have I included references and citations
to the material I have used?)
• Clarity of argument (is the arguments clear and focused on the questions and the
context given)
• Understanding of the matter (does the report demonstrates your Knowledge and
Understanding of the current context and supply chain environments)
• Quality of Conclusions (does it give a summary of your main findings and suggestions)
• Overall report presentation, including spelling and grammar (is the overall report
presentation is as per the standard)
• Adherence to the nominated word limit (3000 words +/- 10%)
• Word processed (letter size 12, times new roman, 1.5 space)
• Fully referenced (Harvard Referencing System). Please refer to the reading
list and academic sources issued in Blackboard and other sources.
Assessment Information/Brief
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Marking scheme:
Criteria Marks
Use of theory/reference to course ideas 30
Knowledge and Understanding of the subject matter 30
Examples 10
Quality of argument 10
Executive summary/Conclusions 10
Citation and References 10

Please remember that marks for the assignment will also be awarded in relation to the main
questions, presentationand structure and aspects such as the use of examples, figures, tables,
illustrations, and statistics that indicate more comprehensive/independent reading.

Explicit marking criteria and mark ranges can be found below.

Assessed intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

1. Critically analyse the theory, concepts and models of global supply chain management to
interpret and understand complex and ambiguous risks in global logistics and supply chain
environments.
2. Synthesise facts and ideas in support of an argument when evolving alternative solutions
and concepts such as lean and agile supply
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of global lead-time management and
time compression.
4. Critically evaluate the role of national and regional distribution centres (NDC/RDC) and
warehouse management systems (WMS)in the strategic development of international
supply chains
5. Demonstrate a sound understanding of the role and importance of an integrated and
responsible approach in shaping managerial attitudes and actions and in the
establishment and maintenance of cross-functional teams and longer-term stakeholder
relationships

Assessment Information/Brief
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 Practical, Professional or Subject Specific Skills
1. Leads by example - as high levels of self-awareness, emotional and social
intelligence,empathy and compassion, and ability to identify mental well-being in
others. Work collaboratively, enabling empowerment and delegation - acts with
humility and
authenticity is credible, confident and resilient.
2. Judgement and Challenge - Takes personal accountability aligned to clear values.
Demonstrates flexibility and willingness to challenge when making decisions and solving
problems - instils confidence demonstrating honesty, integrity, openness, and trust.
3. Courage & Curiosity - is confident and brave, willing to innovate, seeks new ideas, and
looks for contingencies. Manages complexity and ambiguity, is comfortable in uncertainty,
and is pragmatic.
4. Valuing Difference - engaging with all, is ethical and demonstrates inclusivity,
recognisingdiversity, championing, and enabling cultural inclusion. Empowers and
motivates to
inspire and support others.
5. Professional Reflects on own performance, demonstrates professional standards in
relation behaviour and ongoing development. Advocates the use of good practice within
and outside the organisation.
Transferable Skills and other Attributes
1. Identify and utilise appropriate methods for collecting and analysing data related to global
supply chain management issues.
2. Locate, summarise and synthesise a range of information from published literature and
electronic sources on global supply chain management.
3. Work on their own and with others in analysing and presenting solutions to complex
supply chain issues in a range of diverse environments.
4. Manage their time to meet deadlines in both group discussions and in preparation for
in-class activities

Module Aims
1. To enable students to develop an in-depth understanding of the critical nature and
meaning of global supply chain management and its application across a range of
organisations and sectors internationally.
2. To provide students with an analytical framework for global procurement, logistics and
supply chain systems, their design, monitoring and control
3. To facilitate a critical evaluation of the contribution of global logistics and supply chain to
an organisation’s competitive advantage

4. To enable students to recognise and implement responsible and sustainable approaches

to supply chain management.

Word count/ duration (if applicable)

The maximum word count is 3000 words (+/- 10%), excluding References. Words over the word
limit may not be considered and not marked.

Assessment Information/Brief
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 Feedback arrangements
You can expect to receive feedback for your assignment in Turnitin. Summative feedback will be
provided within two weeks from the date of your assignment submission. Formative
assessments with feedback will be provided during after the first day of delivery.

Support arrangements
You can obtain support for this assessment from sources, which can be found on Blackboard.
Forfurther support please send an email to Dr Mandeep Saini or visit his room during his
office hours.

askUS
The University offers a range of support services for students through askUS.
Good Academic Conduct and Academic Misconduct
Students are expected to learn and demonstrate skills associated with good academic conduct
(academic integrity). Good academic conduct includes the use of clear and correct referencing
of source materials. Here is a link to where you can find out more about the skills which
students require http://www.salford.ac.uk/skills-for-learning.
Academic Misconduct is an action which may give you an unfair advantage in your academic
work. This includes plagiarism, asking someone else to write your assessment for you or
taking notes into an exam. The University takes all forms of academic misconduct seriously.
You can find out how to avoid academic misconduct here https://www.salford.ac.uk/skills-for-
learning.

Assessment Information
If you have any questions about assessment rules, you can find out more here.

Personal Mitigating Circumstances

If personal mitigating circumstances may have affected your ability to complete this assessment,
you can find more information about personal mitigating circumstances procedure here.

Personal Tutor/Student Progression Administrator

If you have any concerns about your studies, contact your Personal Tutor or your Student
Progression Administrator.

Assessment Criteria
You should look at the assessment criteria to find out what we are specifically looking at during
the assessment.

In Year Retrieval Scheme

Your assessment is not eligible for in year retrieval. If you are eligible for this scheme, you will
be contacted shortly after the feedback deadline.

Assessment Information/Brief
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 Reassessment
If you fail your assessment and are eligible for reassessment, you will need to resubmit in a date
that will be notified to you. For students with accepted personal mitigating circumstances, this
will be your replacement assessment attempt. Students should be aware that there is no late
submission period at reassessment (this includes those students who have an accepted PMC
request from a previous attempt).

If a student needs to be reassessed, s/he will be given a new assignment brief with a deadline,
which will be provided by the School.

Below are the Level 7 undergraduate Generic Grade Descriptors for ‘Knowledge’

• Outstanding - 100-90
o Outstanding knowledge. Theory is linked to practice to an exceptional level and
may be used to formulate new questions, ideas, or challenges.
• Excellent – 80-89
o Integrates the complexity of a range of knowledge and excellent understanding of
its relevance
o Excellent depth of knowledge in a variety of contexts. Coherent application of
theory to practice
• Very Good – 70-79
o Comprehensive knowledge showing very good depth and breadth. Clear insight
into links between theory and practice. Demonstrates ability to transfer
knowledge between different contexts appropriately. Consistently accurate level
of knowledge in depth and breadth.
• Good – 60-69
o Consistently relevant, accurate knowledge with good depth and breadth. Clear and
relevant application of theory to practice. Good identification of key themes. A
good demonstration of depth and breadth of knowledge.
• Fair – 50-59
o Mostly accurate knowledge with satisfactory depth and breadth of knowledge.
Sound integration of theory and practice with satisfactory identification of key
themes. Fair demonstration of depth and breadth of knowledge.
• Adequate – 40-49
o Basic knowledge with occasional inaccuracies appropriates yet basic integration of
theory and practice. Superficial depth or limited breadth with unsatisfactory
identification of key themes. Basic knowledge demonstrated with some
inaccuracies.
• Unsatisfactory – 30-39
o Limited evidence of knowledge. Inappropriate links between theory and practice.
o Inadequate identification of key themes.
• Poor – 20-29

Assessment Information/Brief
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 o Inconsistent or inaccurate knowledge. Limited and inappropriate or inaccurate
links between theory and practice. Poor identification of key themes.
• Very Poor – 10-19
o Virtually no relevant knowledge demonstrated. Fails to adequately demonstrate
links between theory and practice. Very poor identification of key themes.
• Extremely Poor – 1-9
o Totally inadequate demonstration of required knowledge. Not able to link theory
to practice. No appropriate themes were identified.

Assessment Information/Brief
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Criterion / 90-100
Mark range
Overall level Standard comparable to
a journal publication
(indicative –
not for
grading)
Use of theory Demonstrates an
outstanding knowledge of
theory and practice at
this level. Insightfully
interprets appropriate
concepts and theoretical
models. Demonstrates a
superior level of originality
in conceptual
understanding.
Examples Outstanding use of
examples includes what is
important, and excludes
irrelevant issues.
Comprehensive literature
review. Evaluation and
synthesis of source
material to produce an
outstanding contribution.
Understandin Outstanding with critical
g of subject awareness of the
matter relevance of issues.
Directly relevant to
title/brief. Expertly
addresses the
assumptions of the title
and/or the requirements
of the brief.
Assessment Information/Brief
80-89
Standard comparable to
conference paper
publication
Demonstrates an
exceptional knowledge of
theory and practice at
this level. Expertly
interprets appropriate
concepts and theoretical
models. Demonstrates an
excellent level of
originality in conceptual
understanding.
Exceptional use of
examples, boundaries set
with no significant
omissions or unnecessary
issues. Excellent
independent secondary
research. Sources are
evaluated and
synthesized to produce
an excellent contribution.
Excellent with critical
awareness of relevance
of issues. Directly relevant
to title/brief. Skilfully
addresses the
assumptions of the title
and/or the requirements
of the brief.
70-79 60-69 50-59 40-49 0-39
Distinctive work for Merit work for Masters Acceptable for Masters Below Masters pass Significantly
Masters level level standard below Masters
pass standard
Demonstrates excellent Demonstrates sound Demonstrates an Some omissions are Demonstrates
knowledge of theory knowledge of theory adequate knowledge evident in the weaknesses in
and practice at this and practice for this of theory and practice knowledge of theory the knowledge
level. Proficiently level. for this level. Some minor and practice at this of theory and
interprets appropriate Comprehensively omissions. Satisfactorily level. Insufficient practice for this
concepts and interprets appropriate interprets some understanding of level. Limited
theoretical models. concepts and appropriate concepts appropriate concepts understanding
Demonstrates a very theoretical models. and theoretical models. and theoretical models. and
good level of originality Demonstrates a good Demonstrates a fair Demonstrates some application of
in conceptual level of originality in level of originality in conceptual concepts.
understanding. conceptual conceptual understanding of
understanding understanding. places.
Excellent use of Good use of Fair use of examples but Poorly use of examples, Little or no
examples Very good examples, with some with some omissions and with significant examples
setting of boundaries omissions or unnecessary issues. omissions and provided or
includes most of what is unnecessary issues. Limited secondary unnecessary issues. Little focus evident.
relevant. Very good Good secondary research to extend or no extension of Poor use of
independent secondary research to extend taught materials. taught materials. Poor taught
research. Sources are taught materials. Limited evaluation of choice and synthesis of materials. No
evaluated and Evidence of sources, deficiencies in materials. synthesis.
synthesized to produce evaluation of sources, choice and synthesis.
a very good with some deficiencies
contribution. in choice and
synthesis.
Very good with critical Good with some Basic with limited Poor with little Little or no
awareness of relevance awareness of awareness of relevance awareness of relevance understanding
of issues. Directly relevance of issues. of issues. Some of issues. A significant of the subject
relevant to title/brief. Generally addresses implications of issues degree of irrelevance matter is
Addresses well the the assumptions of the explored. to the title and/or brief. demonstrated.
assumptions of the title title and/or the Issues are addressed at Relevance to
and/or the requirements requirements of the a superficial level and in the title and/or
of the brief well. brief. Minor unchallenging terms. brief is missing.
irrelevance in places.
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Quality of Well structured,
argument compelling and
persuasive argument that
leads to a valuable
contribution to the field of
study, paving the way for
future work. Outstanding
expression of ideas.
Executive Critical analysis of
summary findings. Coherently
and articulated and logically
structured including
conclusions
recommendations. An
appropriate format is
used.
Assessment Information/Brief
Argument has excellent Well-structured and Structured and fairly Argument has some Argument is No evidence of
structure and persuasive argument convincing argument structure and unstructured, no argument or
persuasiveness, leading to Insightful conclusion leads to conclusion development towards recognizable conclusion.
very significant insights draws together key that summarises key conclusion with conclusion.
and relevant future work. issues and possible issues. Ideas are limitations in summary of
Excellent expression of future work. Outstanding expressed, with some issues. Some irrelevant
ideas. expression of ideas. limitation. and/or superficial
arguments. Limited
expression of ideas.
Excellent analysis of Very good analysis of Good analysis of Fair analysis of findings. Little or no analysis of No valid
findings. Clearly findings. For the most findings. For the most Adequate attempt at findings. Limited analysis of
articulated and logically part coherently part coherently articulation and logical attempt at articulation findings. Lack
structured including articulated and logically articulated and structure. An and problems with of articulation
recommendations. constructed. An logically constructed. acceptable format is structure. Some and format is
Anappropriate format appropriate format is An appropriate format used. formatting errors. deficient.
is used. used. is used.
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