Supply Chain Management

THE COUNCIL OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES OF JAMAICA

BACHELOR DEGREE COURSEWORK

SEMESTER I – SEPTEMBER 2021

PROGRAMME: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

COURSE NAME: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

CODE: MGMT4801

YEAR GROUP: FOUR

DATE: 29TH OCTOBER, 2021

EXAMINATION TYPE: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS (INDIVIDUAL) – 10%

Efficient Supply Chain Design for Highly Perishable Foods Designing supply routes is a challenge for any large retailer, particularly under conditions of

rapid growth. When faced with significant uncertainty, many untestable assumptions and limited

resources, choosing a network design can feel more like a shot in the dark than a rigorous,

informed decision.

Let us consider a retailer of a rapidly growing fresh food business, who wishes to develop a

light-weight model to evaluate costs and generate insights into the trade-offs between multiple

supply network designs under a variety of future business conditions.

This retailer expects significant growth in his/her emerging fresh food business, which includes

high-perishable items such as sandwiches, salads and parfaits shipped in totes. Currently, the

company receives freshly-made products from a supplier at a distribution centre, where it is

immediately consolidated with non-perishable items and sent to stores.

The system works with relatively low fresh food volumes. The retailer, however, expects

demand to increase from 3x to 5x current levels. As demand increases, the company is concerned

about the adequacy of this network design in every region. Will consolidation continue to make

sense? Will shipping directly to stores increase freshness, and at what cost? Should the supplier

be co-located with the distribution centre?

A. Describe, for this retailer, the FOUR (4) phases in the framework for network design

decisions. (12 marks )

B. As the retailer begins to question the current design with the possibility of redesigning the

network, describe THREE (3) factors which would influence any supply chain network

design decisions to be made by the company. (12 marks )

C. Relate the basic characteristics of forecasts that this retailer needs to be aware of.

(8 marks )

D. Explain the importance of calculating forecast error. (3 marks )

(Total 35 marks )

This as s e ssment is worth 10% of your total marks and mus t be done within the de adline

s pe cifie d. Failure to do s o will re s ult in an automatic grade of ze ro. Plagiaris m, imprope r

docume ntation and blatant care le s s incorre ct grammar and s pe lling will be pe nalize d by

the los s of 2.5 marks of your grade in e ach cas e .