Critically discuss the managerial relevance of topics in the indicative content, analysing their benefits and implementation challenges to organisations and their supply chains.

Assessment Task

Distribution is not simply a matter of moving products from point A to point B. The driving force behind distribution and transportation in today’s highly competitive business environment is speed. One of the primary quality attributes on which companies compete is speed of service. Customers have gotten used to instant access to information, rapid Internet-based order transactions, and quick delivery of goods and services. As a result, walking next door to check on what’s in the warehouse is not nearly fast enough when customers want to buy a product now and a company has to let them know if it’s in stock. That demands real-time inventory information. Calling a trucking firm and asking it when it will have a truck in the vicinity to pick up a delivery is not nearly fast enough when a customer has come to expect delivery in a few days or overnight. That also requires real-time information about carrier location, schedules, and capacity. Thus the key to distribution speed is information.

Deliverables and Assessment Breakdown

Prepare an individual report that covers the following aspects:

Give a brief overview of time-based competition and how organisations have evolved to make their supply chain processes faster.                                      (15%)

Review current literature on time-based competition, identifying the key elements required to be successful in delivering great quality in time-sensitive operations. Your review must give examples that demonstrate wider reading including facts and figures from a variety of industries. Your review must also evaluate the information presented and give the reader an insight into your educated viewpoints on the subject and the content you have presented.                                                             (40%)

Apply the ideas/concept of time-based competition to an organisation you are a familiar with. Outline how they deliver their products/services using time-based competition concepts. In your discussion consider the industry and other environmental constraints that influence their approach.                      (30%)

Critically evaluate their effectiveness compared to industry standards and their prospects going forward.                                                                      (15%)

Assessment Guidance

The quality of your presentation and academic referencing is very important. Please, use the Harvard Referencing System.

Within your assignment your tutor will be looking for content that addresses the key elements of the assignment brief.

Try not to overcomplicate your answers by choosing a company that you know little about. Keep to simple processes that you know well.

Look at the Check list at the end of this brief. It shows the subheadings to use and offers a guide as to how the marks will be distributed.

Use the percentages as a guide to how to distribute your word count.

Academic Practice

This is an individual assignment. The University of Northampton policy will apply in all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage.

Support and guidance on assessments and academic integrity can be found from the following resources

Assessment Submission 

To submit your work, please go to the ‘Submit your work’ area on the NILE site and use the relevant submission point to upload your report. The deadline for this is 11.59pm (UK local time) on the date of submission. 

Written work submitted to TURNITIN will be subject to anti-plagiarism detection software.  Turnitin checks student work for possible textual matches against internet available resources and its own proprietary database.   

When you upload your work correctly to TURNITIN you will receive a receipt which is your record and proof of submission.  

If your assignment is not submitted to TURNITIN rather than a receipt you will see a green banner at the top of the screen that denotes successful submission.

Your assignment must be word processed and presented in a report format with simple sub-headings. The word count should be 3000 words±10% (tables, diagrams and appendices are excluded from the count). 

The Assignment report should have a Front Sheet showing your name, your student number, the module name, the module number, the assignment title, the module tutor`s name, the date and the word count

N.B Work emailed directly to your tutor will not normally be marked. The only exception to this is when you are instructed to do so because TURNITIN is down.  

Late submission of work 

For first sits, if an item of assessment is submitted late and an extension has not been granted, the following will apply: 

• Within one week of the original deadline – work will be marked and returned with full feedback, and awarded a maximum bare pass grade. 
• More than one week from original deadline – maximum grade achievable LG (L indicating late). 

At the second opportunity deadline (resits) work submitted late will be awarded a LG grade.  There is no opportunity to submit work late for a bare pass. 

Extensions 

The University of Northampton’s general policy with regard to extensions is to be supportive of students who have genuine difficulties, but not against pressures of work that could have reasonably been anticipated.   

For full details please refer to the Extensions Policy.  The module leader can, where appropriate, authorise a short extension of up to two weeks from the original submission date for first sits only. There are NO extensions for resits. The TWO weeks means 14 calendar days including weekends and any University closed days. 

Mitigating Circumstances 

For guidance on Mitigating circumstances please go to Mitigating Circumstances  where you will find detailed guidance on the policy as well as guidance and the form for making an application. 

Please note, however, that an application to defer an assessment on the grounds of mitigating circumstances should normally be made in advance of the submission deadline or examination date.   

Plagiarism and Academic Integrity  

Unless this is a group assignment, the work you produce must be your own with work taken from any other source properly referenced and attributed. The University of Northampton policy will apply in all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage. 

If you are in any doubt about what constitutes plagiarism or any other infringement of academic integrity, please read the University’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy. For help with understanding academic integrity go to UNPAC  and follow the Top Tips for Good Academic Practice on the student hub.  

Please note that the University of Northampton puts all written assignments through detection software which detects if work has been plagiarised (copied) from other students (past or present and whether at UON or any other university), books, journals or internet sources. Copied materials WILL be detected. The penalties for copying work from another source without proper referencing are severe and can include failing the assignment, failing the module and expulsion from the university. 

Feedback and Grades 

These can be accessed through clicking on the Feedback and Grades tab on NILE. Feedback will be provided by a rubric with summary comments. 

All assignments will be submitted, graded and fed-back electronically via TURNITIN. Several submissions will be permitted before the hand-in date in order to enable you to refine the content in your report.

If you click on the “Submit Your Work” button on the Module NILE site you will find an explanation of the Submission and Grading Electronically process there.

Feedback on assignments in general will be provided to the whole group when marked assignments are returned.

Feedback on assignments for each individual will be provided electronically via TURNITIN. 

A student may obtain an individual appointment to discuss feedback with the tutor.

BSOM046 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

ASS’T 2   “Report Content Checklist”

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes being addressed through this assignment are:

1. Critically discuss the managerial relevance of topics in the indicative content, analysing their benefits and implementation challenges to organisations and their supply chains.
2. Apply managerial concepts, theoretical frameworks and approaches to solve specific operations and supply chain problems in a range of business case scenarios, including related implementaion challenges.
3. Develop problem solving capabilities, elaborating pros and cons arguments concerning practical applications of a range of theoretical concepts and managerial frameworks.