Operations Management

Learning Outcome 1: Critically evaluate the major principles of operations management.

Learning Outcome 2: Analyse business problems and apply appropriate decision making, planning and control techniques by using a range of academic and industry sources.

Task

Supply Chain Management has become increasingly important for businesses nowadays, with huge opportunities and challenges. How to improve Supply Chain profitability and competitiveness while being environmentally friendly, technologically advanced and sustain major disruptions in global Supply Chains such as coronavirus COVID-19 is a timely question that has both theoretical and practical significance.

Dolgui et al. (2020) published a paper in International Journal of Production Research, with the title of "Reconfigurable supply chain: the X-network". It incorporates four important aspects of Supply Chain Management: digitalization, leagility, resilience and sustainability (see Figures 2 & 3 from the paper).

Read the Dolgui et al. (2020) paper carefully (full text available on Moodle). Although the authors argued for the interconnection of four aspects in the proposed X-network, for this assignment choose only ONE aspect as your focus. With the chosen aspect, conduct a critical literature review to show your understanding of the current state of the literature, and use one company of your choice to highlight its good practice in this chosen field.

It is advisable to avoid very small independent companies, because you may not be able to find enough information on their operations. Annual reports can provide very useful information and insights into an organisation`s operations. Remember to use good quality resources and provide a reference list (in the APA style).

Suggested structure
Introduction (100 words): briefly introduce the topic of the assignment (chosen from Dolgui et al. (2020))
Literature review (800 words): conduct a critical evaluation of the chosen topic, using appropriate academic resources
Company application (600 words): analyse how the company of your choice is a good example in the chosen topic and make sure this part connects with literature review.
Conclusion