To analyse a supply chain management aspect through the development of a case study of a relevant company/organisation.

University of Bradford

Faculty of Engineering & Digital Technologies

ENB7008-B Supply Chain Management & Production

Coursework 2024-2025

Deadline for submission: Monday 9^th December 2024 before 6 pm.

Electronic copy only, submitted through Canvas/Turn-it-in

Read the Coursework Brief Carefully.

Individual Coursework:

To analyse a supply chain management aspect through the development of a case study of a relevant company/organisation.

The coursework consists of analysing the case study of a company or organisation that has implemented the selected supply chain management aspect (see list of aspects).

You must select only one aspect of the list to analyse in your coursework.

Relevant good quality sources and publications should provide information and evidence about how the selected company has implemented the chosen supply chain aspect.

Relevant sources should include: the most recent and available annual report of the company (2022,2023), their sustainability report (2022,2023), other relevant documents about the operations of the company, news reports, articles from online industrial magazines, academic articles, articles by consultancy companies, books, e-books, government publications, etc.  

The coursework should be supported with at least 15 good quality references.

A Master level assessment requires to be supported with good quality references.

Therefore, the aim of this coursework is to analyse one of the supply chain management aspects listed below by a company/organisation of your choice (select only one aspect for your individual coursework):

• Strategies for Globalisation of Supply Chains,
• Risk Management for Supply Chains,
• Resilient Operations or Resilient Supply Chains,
• Lean Manufacturing tools applied to improve Supply Chains,
• Supply Chains for the Circular Economy (this may include aspects of reverse logistics, remanufacturing, closed-loop supply chains, etc.),
• Green Supply Chains (this refers to the environmental perspective of sustainable supply chains),
• Supplier Selection/Evaluation,
• Industry 4.0 Technologies applied to support Supply Chain Management,
• Autonomous vehicles and/or drones to support the supply chain.

Important note: these are the specific topics that you can select for your coursework.A coursework that only discussed the concept of supply chain management in general terms is not acceptable and it will receive a fail mark.

These aspects of modern operations and supply chain management take place in different industries, not only within the manufacturing sector (e.g. automotive, aerospace, oil and gas, chemical, food & beverages, textiles, medical equipment, healthcare organisations, metal products, plastics, construction, infrastructure projects, etc.).

It is advised to select a case study (company) relevant to your engineering discipline if possible.

Structure of the Coursework:

You must follow the coursework structure indicated below. You must include the indicated sections for your report, and the different sections must be numbered:

Cover page, table of content, and list of abbreviations. All pages must be numbered.

1. Introduction. It should include a brief description of the coursework, including the aim of the report, and a brief description of the structure of your report.
2. Brief background of the company/organisation, providing a broad idea of the size of their operations, types of products and industry sector (supported with references).
3. Brief PESTEL analysis to understand the external environment of the company/organisation (supported with references).
4. Analysis of the selected supply chain management aspect that the company/organisation has implemented. After you have explained the key characteristics of the supply chain aspect, then you need to explain benefits for the company regarding this supply chain aspect, challenges or barriers to implementation, sustainability issues related to that supply chain aspect, and key risks for the company/organisation related to that supply chain aspect.

This section 4 should have a word count of around 2000 words.

1. Conclusion, including a brief summary of the report, a discussion of lessons learnt from this coursework, and a reflection on ethical aspects.
2. List of good quality references (e.g. annual report of the company, sustainability report, other relevant documents about the operations of the company, news reports, articles from online industrial magazines, academic articles, articles by consultancy companies, books, e-books, government publications, etc.) in Harvard Style. Organise your list of references in alphabetical order. You must include the internet links of your references to allow checking these sources.
3. Appendices (e.g. mind maps, process maps, large tables created by you, etc.).

Review the tutorial learning materials related to the coursework.

Important Notes:

The length of coursework is 3000 words, without including cover page, table of content, references and appendices.

The deadline for the submission of the coursework is: Monday 9^th December 2024 before 6 pm (electronic copy only, submitted through Canvas/Turn-it-in).

For your coursework, you must apply the Harvard Style Referencing System. Include all your references at the end of the coursework, in alphabetical order.

Guide to apply the Harvard Referencing System:

https://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/help/referencing-and-plagiarism/

The library also provides other online resources to help you with referencing:

https://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/help/referencing-and-plagiarism/#d.en.127976

Do NOT use websites like Wikipedia, About.com, Wikihow, ehow.co.uk, or similar sites as references. These are not appropriate academic references.

Do NOT use Essay Mills websites to access reports/coursework from other students. The use of Essay Mills websites is now illegal in the UK.

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/04/28/essay-mills-are-now-illegal-skills-minister-calls-on-internet-service-providers-to-crack-down-on-advertising

The books included in the reading list are good sources of information to support your coursework (see the Module Handbook available in Canvas)

Avoid copy/paste practices for the text of your coursework, as this approach does not demonstrate that you understood what you copied!

Read the text of interest from the original publication, reflect on the key points of that text, and then write down your ideas about those key points using your own words. Immediately cite the reference in Harvard style along your own text (e.g. sentence, discussion, paragraph, etc.), and add the publication to your list of references.

Avoid excessive use of “quotations”. If you use quotations, you must explain in your own words what you understand from those quotations.

Very Important: Students must not copy the work of other students (all plagiarism attempts will be reported to the University). You must clearly and explicitly cite the original sources of information (in Harvard style), avoid copy-paste practices, paraphrase on your own words what you understand from the original text, and include the cited references in the list of references.

You must not use Artificial Intelligence Chatbots/web applications to generate your coursework.

Your coursework must be the result of your own work, and it must be done with honesty.

Details about the Structure of the Coursework:

Your report “must” follow the structure below:

Cover page.

Table of content, list of abbreviations.

1. Introduction (aim of the coursework).

2. Background of the company/organisation.

3. PESTEL analysis.

4. Analysis of the selected supply chain management implemented by the company/organisation.

   4.1 Explain how the company has applied/implemented the selected supply chain aspect.

   4.2 Benefits

   4.3 Challenges or barriers to implementation.

   4.4 Sustainability issues related to that supply chain aspect.

  4.5 Key risks for the company/organisation related to that supply chain aspect.

5. Conclusions (very brief summary of the report, lessons learnt from this work, and reflection on ethical aspects).

6. List of references (in Harvard style, organised in alphabetical order, and include web links).

7. Appendices (if applicable).

Assessment Criteria of Coursework Draft

Draft of Coursework to be submitted before 6pm on Friday 8th of November 2024.

The draft represents 10% of the overall module mark.

Assessment Criteria of Final Coursework

The deadline for submitting the final version of your coursework will be on Monday 9th December 2024 before 6 pm.