OM0012-Supply Chain Management

Winter-2015

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Master of Business Administration - MBA Semester 3

OM0012-Supply Chain Management

(Book ID: B1542)

Assignment (60 Marks)

Note: Answer all questions must be written within 300 to 400 words each. Each Question carries 10 marks 6 X 10=60

Q1. What are the different factors affecting transportation decisions?

(Description/outline of different following factors and its sub factors in students own words

Carriers

• Vehicle related cost

• Fixed operating cost

• Trip related cost

• Quantity related cost

• Overhead cost

Customers

• Transportation cost

• Inventory cost

• Facility cost

• Processing cost

• Service level and fast delivery

Answer. It is important to research the local market to learn the different types of services provided by different carriers, and then select the carrier that provides the best service.

This factor can be further divided as follows:

Q2 Write short notes on risk pooling.

(Description of risk pooling, importance of risk pooling in SCM,

Listing and summarization (along with suitable examples for each) of four, types of risk pooling, Location pooling, Product pooling:

• Lead time pooling

• Capacity pooling)

Answer. Risk pooling and its types

Risk pool is a term used in risk management, mostly in insurance companies. Under this system, insurance companies come together to form a pool, which can provide protection to insurance companies against catastrophic risks such as floods, earthquakes, etc.

There are several types of risk pooling strategies that are used in supply chain management. Each of these strategies can help any firm to work effectively. A firm needs to choose the strategy that is appropriate for a situation.

Q3. Read the following case study and answer the questions given the end of the case study Best Supplier Relationship Management: Jaguar Land Rover and Gobel & Partner Jaguar Land Rover production line 8 October 2013 | CIPS Supply Management Awards 2013 “Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) transformed its position in customer satisfaction surveys and enhanced the quality of its products through an innovative partnership with a key supplier.

By re-evaluating the way it deals with quality control and suppliers, Jaguar took top spot in the 2012 JD Power Survey for customer satisfaction and Land Rover raced up the chart. In 2008, the survey put Jaguar at nine and Land Rover at 34 for quality, described by JLR as “clearly an unsatisfactory situation” for a premium brand and stated that “something had to change”. Component quality was identified as the key issue – for some suppliers the proportion of rejected parts was as high as 65 per cent – and some finished vehicles were being put into ‘containment’ due to faulty components. This had knock-on effects including delayed customer shipments, production line stoppages that cost £2,000 per minute and the risk that faulty parts could make their way into completed vehicles. At the time, JLR was working with 16 different suppliers across three factories to undertake parts rework and containment, resulting in differing quality regimes and an inability to share data across the company. As a result, there was no single view of any given supplier’s quality history, which made preventative action impossible. A new director of quality was appointed who launched a review of quality across the supply chain that identified potential improvements that could be made to the inspection of incoming components from suppliers. The Inbound Materials Project was established and the 16 suppliers dealing with quality control were reduced to one – Gobel & Partner (G&P) – who saw it as an opportunity to introduce innovations and boost investment in its Qtrak quality management system, which totals £2 million to date.

This evolved into a partnership between JLR and G&P. Both realised that prevention was better than cure, and through Qtrak they could identify the component suppliers causing the most problems. Those with a recurrent history of reject parts were subject to a more rigorous inspection regime. G&P’s aim is to ensure no faulty part ever arrives at JLR production facilities and they now work on the premises of high-risk suppliers to review quality processes. The firm is also working at JLR’s new plant in China to ensure the right quality approach is in place from the beginning.

Over six years, the relationship between the firms has evolved from a traditional adversarial situation, where G&P were treated as one of a number of commodity suppliers, to one where the two are working to the same goal of “bringing premium quality to premium brands”.Wolfram Leidtke, JLR board quality director, said: “JLR is a premium brand and accordingly needs to have premium quality vehicles. Procurement has aligned with this objective. G&P has been able to transfer their global knowledge and work with JLR to develop a new approach to incoming material quality and the results are starting to speak for themselves.’ ”(Illustrate the role quality played as criteria in JLR choosing its supplier Gobel & Partner. Explain the importance of Gobel & Partner in the supply chain(unit 6)

A Students should illustrate based on:

• How critical is component quality to JLR

• What were the effects of bad quality

• What were the issues JLR had to tackle to working with 16 suppliers

• The steps taken by JLR to improve quality

Importance of the supplier) 10 marks

Answer. The role quality played as criteria in JLR choosing its supplier Gobel & Partner

• Quality plays a very important role as criteria In JLR choosing its supplier. It is critical component.

• As we see in the case study JLR was working with 16 different suppliers across three factories to undertake parts rework and containment, resulting in differing quality regimes and an inability to share data across the company.

• The main bad effect of this bad quality was that, there was no single view of any given supplier’s quality history, which made preventative action impossible. As I noticed after reading given study that only the quality was the reason that made the Gobel & partner as supplier. 

Q4. “MTR Foods, the Bangalore-based food processing company, is planning to utilise the services of a third party manufacturer for the first time. The contracted plant in Mathura for producing vermicelli is expected to give it a push in the northern and eastern markets where it is trying to expand its presence. The company is also planning a capacity expansion in spices.

MTR has nine plants in Bommasandra Industrial Area in Bangalore which caters to its product categories like spices and masala, beverages, vermicelli and frozen food. The company has so far produced its brands inhouse. ‘The plant in Mathura would help us supply to the north and eastern parts of the country. It would help us source wheat faster and also trim freight costs by 6-7 per cent,’ said Sanjay Sharma, chief executive officer, MTR Foods.”

Which according to you may then be distribution strategy used by MTR? Justify your answer (unit 8)

• (Explanation on the facts fitting the strategy

• Identification of the strategy

• Rationale behind choosing the strategy

• Conclusion)

Answer. Explanation on the facts fitting the strategy

MTR Foods Ltd. is one of India's leading purveyors of packaged foods. The company is one of only a few that sell packaged food nationwide. It pushed into more cities in southern India, where it eventually gained leading market share in every region that enjoyed a predominantly vegetarian cuisine. Market opportunities also increased in Bangalore, which had become the so-called Silicon Valley of India, the center of the country's booming information technology industry. The name of the distribution strategy choosed by MTR is intensive which fits to the facts of this food company.

Q5. Explain any four direct benefits of outsourcing with examples. (unit 10) A any four of the following benefits (reason why this is a benefit, description of the benefit and example)

• Focusing on core competency

• Reducing the expenses of manufacturing and logistics services

• Reducing the head count of hourly employees and management

• Improving the accuracy

• Improving flexibility and wider range of services

• Getting access to global networks and better technology

• Improving services

• Improving quality

• Reducing capital investment and increasing cash flow

Answer. Direct benefits of outsourcing in detail are as:

• Focusing on core competency – When a company outsources manufacturing, logistics, or both, then there is no requirement of resources to manufacture the product, to store the product or to deliver it to the customers. The company can utilise these resources for its core functions. For example, when a company considers product design and engineering as its core competencies, then outsourcing the manufacturing of the product helps in improvement of designing and engineering capabilities.

Q6 Describe the supplier integration approach. Explanation of the stages of supplier integration with suitable examples

• None

• White box

• Gray box

• Black box

Answer. Supplier integration at any stage in the development process happens to be advantageous. But survey results have revealed that suppliers integrated Supplier integration at any stage in the development process happens to be advantageous. But survey results have

Winter-2015

Get solved assignments at nominal price of Rs.125 each.

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