Assessment 2: Case StudyINDUSTRY BASED GROUP CASE STUDY ASSESSMENT 2

ASSESSMENT OVERVIEW

Key Assessment Information

PURPOSE

In a group of three, this project requires you to investigate the Global Procurement activities of a chosen business in Australia or overseas.The output of this industry-based Global Procurement project is a written report that to be prepared in consultation with the Senior Procurement Executive or a key person of the company. Additionally, the group is to present a summary of your report in class.

The unit Learning Outcomes assessed are:

• LO 1: Analyse a range of functions that make up the modern procurement process and their importance in the supply chain
• LO 2: Investigate contemporary supply chain issues and provide recommendations
• LO 4: Articulate a range of supply chain solutions by working collaboratively within the group

ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE

In a group of three, you are required to choose an actual company from within Australia or overseas.

You will evaluate the current procurement activities of the company by talking to the Procurement or Sourcing Manager(s) and gather relevant information about materials or services purchased, suppliers, transportation methods, terms of trade, types of contracts employed and associated supply base management activities. Then, the group can choose a particular commodity or critical supplier for a more detailed analysis.

Particular attention should be paid to the overall procurement policies and the policies or strategies that apply to critical purchased items. If the organisation has documented commodity plans (and is willing to share these) then the group can assess these commodity plans for their completeness and alignment with theory. If the organisation does not have formal commodity plans, then the group can create a commodity plan that they would recommend to the business.

Finally, the group can assess the effectiveness of the procurement operations in meeting the needs of the organisation. This might include discussions or surveys with the internal customers or suppliers of the organisation. Any problems highlighted by this assessment should then be answered by the group making recommendations for improvement.

PLEASE NOTE:Important message here (only if applicable, otherwise delete)

INSTRUCTIONS

PROJECT PROPOSAL (5%)

1. 1. A brief single-page project proposal explaining the business and plan of study should be submitted in Week 2 Session 4 for the lecturer to check that it meets the assessment requirement.
   2. The proposal should outline the rationale behind:
      1. The chosen area of study
      2. A company profile
      3. The nature of materials or services purchased
      4. Internal customers
      5. Suppliers of the goods or services
      6. Methodology to be followed in undertaking the study
      7. The main contact at the organisation to be studied
   3. The proposal should spell out clearly the issues/problems in the chosen area of research, including a clear outline of each member’s roles and responsibilities within the major project.

PRESENTATION (15%) & REPORT (35%)

1. 1. The group is advised to start working on their major project as soon as they get the proposal approved.
      1. The considerable effort required can be integrated into your own regular workload if approached sufficiently early
      2. This project is a critical piece of assessment for the subject
   2. Each student should expect to spend 25-30 hours on it.
   3. Commence the project by understanding the context of the organisation and the criticality of the items purchased to the success of the organisation. Seek to understand the overall procurement policies and any commodity or category management plans in place.
   4. Be able to describe the organisation’s supply base management approaches including what types of supplier development and performance assessments might be employed.
   5. Having discovered what, the organisation does, in regard to, procurement policy and commodity/category planning, supply base management, and supplier development, compare this with the theory provided as part of this course and assess whether improvements can be made. Where there are opportunities for improvement provide recommendations for how the organisation might close the gaps identified.
   6. Submit your report to the Dropbox in VUC for plagiarism check which should be less than 15%. One member of the group should manage the submission.

Please noteIf you are having difficulties, you must talk to your Lecturer/Tutor as soon as possible.

SELF-ENROL INTO A GROUP!

You should have formulated groups within your session, so the next thing to do is to self-enrol online via VU Collaborate.
Please follow the simple instructions to self-enrol online here opens in new window.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The following levels of criteria will be used to grade this assessment task:

• Criteria 1:Structured synopsis/executive summary prepared in line with the purpose of the report, findings, methodology/approach, implications for theory, limitation of the study and originality (must be part of final report)
• Criteria 2: Clear identification of the existing commodity or category management plans or in their absence recommendations for what strategies or plans should be adopted which are supported by theory.
• Criteria 3: Description of the organisations supply base management and supplier development activities and how these align with theory, where these activities are missing or incomplete make recommendations on what activities the organisation should implement.
• Criteria 4: Methodology (what methodology – interview, internet/company website search, short questionnaire, etc.)
• Criteria 5: Identification of the effectiveness of the procurement activities including any opportunities for improvement.
• Criteria 6: Clear support for any assessment or recommendations from the literature.
• Criteria 7: The use of suitable references which are detailed in the body of the report and a bibliography utilizing the Harvard methodology.
• Criteria 9: Presentation, writing skills, and content of the report (professional writing, grammar, spelling, quality of references used, contents of report).
• Criteria 10: A well-constructed group presentation that summarises the group’s work and highlights the key points and recommendations. Each student is expected to contribute to the presentation and marks may differ between students.

Access Assessment 2A: Proposal opens in new window, Assessment 2B: Presentation opens in new window, Assessment 2C: Report opens in new window rubrics for the full marking criteria.