MG3081: You are required to provide a brief overview of your chosen organisation: Supply chain management, Assignment, UOL, Ireland

A key learning outcome of this module is to understand what a supply chain is and the
importance of supply chain management strategies in achieving competitiveness for an
organisation.

For that reason, the assignment aims to assess your ability to apply key concepts that have
been addressed as part of the module to an organisation of your choice. For ease of access to relevant information and for professional relevance, most students select their current or a
previous employer. However, you are free to select any company should you wish or a
published case study, referencing its source.

Please note that a supply chain can comprise of external members, such as suppliers,
distributors and external customers; or it can be completely internal, such as one department
being the supplier of information or a process to another department or one plant supporting another etc.

Section 1 

1. You are required to provide a brief overview of your chosen organisation.

Guidelines for section 1

Section 1 requires you have provided a brief overview of your organisation, for e.g. have you
provided relevant and pertinent information in relation to the industry the organisation
competes in? Have you placed the organisation within the context of that industry? i.e is it a
market leader or a new entrant etc. Have you described the characteristics of the industry,
e.g., is it a service industry or traditional manufacturing, etc.? Are there regulatory
requirements which influence the supply chain practices in place etc.?
It is important to be succinct and focused in this part as you do not want to waste valuable
word count providing unnecessary information in relation to the organisation that is not
relevant to the assignment. Therefore, ensure that this section is brief and to the point but
nonetheless provides sufficient background and contextual information.

Section 2

Performance Measurement Systems

This section must provide a critical analysis of the performance measurement system currently in place in your organisation. Remember that a critical analysis examines all elements, the positive and the negative. The assignment should examine how the performance measurement system motivates and directs behaviour of those being measured, does it drive the intended behaviours and are the measures strategically aligned across the organisation, or are some department’s goals in direct conflict with other department’s goals.

The focus of this analysis should include discussion on:
• How the current measures were agreed upon initially
• How they were communicated to the various stakeholders
• How regularly the measures are reviewed to ensure that they are still relevant
• How the actual performance data is used to drive improvements.
• How effective are these measures in achieving the desired goals and objectives?

THIS SECTION SHOULD NOT SIMPLY PROVIDE A LIST OF MEASURES AND WHAT EACH ONE MEANS. This is supposed to be a critical analysis of the effectiveness of the PMS that is currently in place. You must include a combination of theory and practical application in your answer.

Section 3

Sustainability within the supply chain
In this part you need to examine your chosen organisation from the perspective of sustainable supply chain practices.

1) What are the main drivers for the implementation of sustainable measures, i.e., is the customer demanding them, cost issues, regulatory requirements, raw material shortages, following the competition etc.
2) Pick one sustainable practice/requirement from each of the 3 pillars (so one social, one economic and one environmental) and discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in implementing that sustainable strategy.

You must include a combination of referenced theory and practical application in your answer.
The word count for this assignment is 1800 words (with a 10% word tolerance limit).