Operations and Supply Chain Strategy

OUTLINE – The following headings and subheadings must be in your paper.

Operations & Supply Chain Strategy

1. Core Competencies
2. Competitive Priorities
3. Competitive Priorities Aligned with Core Competency
4. Supply Chain Type
5. Supply Chain Diagram
6. Key Partnership
   1. Up Stream
   1. Down Stream
7. Supply Chain and Corporate Social Responsibility  
8. Supply Chain Aligned with Competitive Priorities

Value Creation Process

1. Process Description
2. Process Diagram 
3. Worker Skills
4. Equipment
5. Key Performance Measures & Results

1. Innovation and Learning Perspective & Results
2. Internal Perspective & Results
3. Customer Perspective & Results
4. Financial perspective & Results

Note: If specific information related to your product/company is not available, provide industry norms.

Value-added Attachments: Include any value-added attachments.  Be sure to reference them in the paper and clearly label each attachment.  Do not include page numbers on the attachment(s).

Reference List: You must research this company and product, and provide multiple properly cited sources using In-text Citations and a Reference List.  Be sure to put the Reference List in alphabetical order and do not include page numbers on the Reference List page(s).

DETAILED GUIDELINES

Operations & Supply Chain Strategy

In this section, you will identify and evaluate the operations strategy associated with this product. In addition, your product is supported by a supply chain that creates value by sourcing materials or external services and delivering the product to its customers.  As part of this assignment, you will discuss the following:

1. Core Competency – Using a short paragraph (1 to 4 sentences), briefly state the core competency from the Integration Company Strategy assignment.  IMPORTANT: Correctly identifying the core competency is critical to the rest of this paper, since much of what you need to address below is directly linked to the core competency if the company.
2. Competitive Priorities – Identify and explain which of the following (one or more) competitive priorities the company uses to attract customers: low-cost or high-quality (cannot be both), speed of delivery, product flexibility, and/or value-added service. 
3. Core Competency Aligned with the Competitive Priorities – Clearly show how the competitive priorities aligns with the core competency and how the product creates value for customers.
4. Type of Supply Chain – Identify the type of supply chain (i.e. Build-to-Stock, Assemble-to-Order, Build-to-Order, or Design-to-Order) that best supports its product in order to satisfy customers’ needs.  You may need to create a hybrid of more than one type of supply chain.  Also explain the stages of the supply chain used by the organization.  Be sure to include all of the upstream and downstream stages.
5. Supply Chain Diagram – Create a diagram (attachment) that portrays the supply chain identified above.  Do NOT just copy one of the diagrams from the textbook, since those are generic–provide specifics to the company/industry being researched. 
6. Key Partnerships – Identify several keypartnerships (i.e. suppliers and/or outsourced activities).  Be sure to identify at least one upstream and one downstream partner.
7. Supply Chain and Corporate Social Responsibility – Identify and determine the degree to which your company’s product and supply chain is ecologically responsible and socially responsible.
8. Supply Chain Aligned with the Competitive Priorities – Explain how the supply chain, identified and described above, aligns with the competitive priorities.

Value Creation Process

In this section, you will describe the company’s process that (1) creates value for the customers, (2) provides the product (goods and services), and (3) supports the strategy identified in your other papers. Remember, the focus of this paper is the core competency(ies) of the organization. Included in this assignment will be:

1. Process Description – Select an internal process (i.e. manufacturing a good or providing a service) that is related to a core competency and provide a brief overall description of the process required to achieve success.  Note:  The next section of this paper is a diagram of the process; therefore, this section must contain only the necessary information that leads into and references the process diagram.  Process steps and specific details of the process must not be in this section since they will be provided in the diagram (next section).
2. Process Diagram – Create a process diagram (attachment) that identifies the key steps of the process identified in the process description section above.   The attachment must contain one of the following:
   1. Process Flowchart for manufacturing goods
   1. Service Process Diagram/Blueprint for providing service(s)
3. Worker Skills – Related to the process description and process diagram above, identify the most important jobs/positions, required qualifications (e.g. education level, certifications, knowledge, skills, and abilities) and job responsibilities. 
4. Equipment – Related to the process description and process diagram above, identify specific equipment (not raw materials and supplies) and the function of the equipment needed to carry out the process identified above.
5. Key Performance Measures and Results – For all 4 perspectives listed below, identify the 2 or 3 key performance measures required to evaluate each perspective and provide results (data resulting from the measures) for each.
   1. Innovation and Learning Perspective – Identify the employee competencies, and/or organization’s technology and/or culture that enables the development and introduction of new products into the market; and provide results.  For example, measurement: education level of key employees (engineering) / results: 90% of all engineers have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
   1. Internal Perspective – Identify the key internal business processes, related to the core competencies of the organization that are important to the organization’s success and provide results.  For example, measurement: time of meal preparation / results: average meal preparation time is 15.3 minutes.
   1. Customer Perspective – Identify how the organization and 3^rd parties measure customer satisfaction and provide results.  For example, measurement: customers satisfaction ratings / consumer journal report customer satisfaction rating is 9.3/10.
   1. Financial Perspective – Identify some key financial measures and summarize why they are important for the organization.  Use a table and/or other diagrams to display the important financial measures (e.g. sales growth, profit, etc.) and results.  For example, measure: market share / rating 23.5% of the total market.

CONCEPTS COVERED IN THE TEAM PAPER

As a team you will be required to research and report on the following operations concepts related to the project company and/or products:

1. Determine the proper company and operations strategy
2. Define the supply chain.
3. Design the value creation process
4. Determine how the organization implements Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES OF THE TEAM PAPER

Knowledge

• Know the different types of company and operations strategy.
• Understand how these strategies relate to specific customer requirements.
• Understand the role of the firm in the value creation process and in its supply chain.

Skills

• Be able to identify the company, operations and supply chain strategy that best satisfies the target customers’ requirements.
• Be able to relate customer requirements to specific process(es).
• Be able to determine those aspects of the firm’s operation that can/should be outsourced.
• Be able to determine how best to serve its customers.
• Be able to determine the benefits and limitations of a sustainable and/or socially responsible operations strategy for your product.

Perspectives

• Recognize that an organization’s strategy is the driver (impetus) for an organizations operations and supply chain strategy.
• Recognize that in today’s environment, supply chains are an important part of the organization’s competitive advantage.
• Recognize the need for aligning all elements of the supply chain.
• Appreciate the benefits and challenges when developing sustainable processes for a product.