procurement inventory management
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MODULE TITLE: Procurement & Inventory Management
MODULE CODE:
MODULE DATES: 15/08 23/08/2020
STUDENT ID NUMBER (name not required):
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Procurement and Inventory Management
Your answer to these questions must total no more than 4,000 words
excluding appendices.
You will have to choose
TWO (2)
questions out of the
Questions 1-5
below.
Please answer each task in a separate section.
Please include the question at the beginning of each response.
The questions are referring to a given case study described below.
All questions carry equal marks.
Notes:
1. Show the question title at the beginning of each part, let the professor knows which question you pick at first.
2. Introduction and conclusion are not necessary, just more relevant to the content
3. Round 2000 words each question
4. References related to the case study, explain the question, comparing options
5. 10 more references per question, 20 in total
6. No cheating! Professor will go through the references one by one..
CASE Creative Construction Company (CCC)
The given case is an international construction company, which is an invented case but will have similarities to existing businesses. Information not provided in this material may be taken from typical real world cases out of the industry; but must be supported by current active reference material.
Creative Construction Company
Fig 1 The Creative Construction Company Logo and website homepage.
The key facts are:
The Creative Construction Company has its main offices in Birmingham, UK. It currently manages over 3000 construction projects per year and has a typical procurement spend value of 2.5Bn (2.5 billion pounds) in the UK alone.
The company is an international giant, employing over 20,000 people worldwide across all function or disciplines (e.g. Operations, administration, HR, finance etc.) with offices in Lyon, Amsterdam, Madrid, Berlin, Munich, Budapest, Sofia, Ankara, San Francisco, Houston, Kansas, Chicago, New York and Montreal.
The company has never addressed the problems it faces with volatile procurement prices of raw materials, finished goods, logistics and transport services, technical expertise and equipment across its portfolio of global projects.
This is now a major focus of the Board of Directors as they feel it is restricting growth for new projects and limiting access to new yet untapped markets. In addition to the procurement issue, many believe this is also due to problems such as seasonality issues for labour and transport, unpredictable weather conditions, social and environmental restrictions in the local project areas etc.
Creative Construction legacy issues due to their successful growth in recent years:
Procurement has not been a strategic focus of the company and is traditionally managed locally at the construction sites across the globe.
This has reduced the potential for leveraging purchasing volumes of core products (concrete, steel, glass etc.), transforming and developing supply chains, access to skilled workforce and technical expertise.
A lack of central co-ordination and management of procurement is believed to be at the core of the issues now under investigation by the Board of Director
1
6
Questions
1. Procurement Process
Develop a structure for the sourcing process that CCC could implement to support a new company wide procurement strategy. Identify which processes are especially relevant for the diversity of the 3 main product groups;
Concrete.
Steel.
Glass.
Discuss how the structure and strategy described above will support such important issues such as; supplier selection, volume forecasting, transportation, etc. Discuss and give examples of which element of the proposed strategic procurement initiative would be most relevant for each product group.
2. Supplier Relationship
As each project requires a wide range of local services to complete the work, to the satisfaction of the customers, they will no doubt face many different problems with suppliers products due to the issues from the case study. Discuss what these problems may be and identify how CCC may be able engage and work with global suppliers to leverage volume purchasing and control distribution to reduce the overall spend on each product group identified in Question 1. Discuss how the relationship between local and global suppliers and CCC will change under this scenario (i.e. CCC working with global suppliers)
Illustrate best practices e.g. from construction companies you find in your research.
3. Inventory Management Techniques and Improvements
Appraise the merits, validity and risks associated with the following techniques with respect to the challenges facing CCC in managing the flow to construction sites (point of usage) of the three product types; Concrete, Steel and Glass identified in Question 1. Note each response carries 20% of the available marks.
ABC Analysis
Supply scheduling
Dependent demand
Bulk orders
Vendor Managed Inventory
4. Ethical Practices
Discuss the ethical and environmental issues specifically relating to procurement that may affect a business like CCC with special consideration for the production, handling, transportation and disposal of the three product types; Concrete, Steel and Glass identified in Question 1. In your response, you must consider the main issues with distribution and storage of these product types that affect this industry.
You should support your response with relevant examples from construction or other industries or your own experiences.
5. Contract Considerations
While the new sourcing and procurement processes are being developed, CCC must also in parallel consider the impact on any existing contracts in place with suppliers who may be able to provide a more global service. They need to develop/modify existing or create suitable contracts that will support the new procurement strategy.
Discuss how CCC may do this. You need to explain the potential impact this will have on current projects with a focus on the management and lifecycle of the new and existing contracts.
DEADLINE:
To be submitted electronically via Tabula BEFORE 09:00 on 20th September 2020
NB: Late submission of coursework without approval for an extension will result in marks being deducted at the rate of 3 percentage points per University working day after the due date, up to a maximum of 10 University working days late. After this period the work may be counted as a non-submission.
PLEASE NOTE:
1. PMW that is received after 09:00, will be recorded at having arrived the next working day.
2. PMW that is not submitted on Tabula by the deadline on the due date, will be considered late. Penalties for lateness is applied at the rate of 3 percentage points per university working day after the due date, up to a maximum of 10 university days late. After this period, the work will be counted as a non-submission.
Complete your assignment from here (heading styles have been set up to assist you in this work) (Delete the instructions in this font before you save and submit your work):
MODULE TITLE
Table of Contents
1 Heading 1 Suggested that you use this for each Question answered 1
1.1 Heading 2 suggested that you use this for each sub-heading in each question answered 1
1.1.1 Heading 3 you may use this heading as appropriate 1
Enter a page break here and between each question
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Heading 1 Suggested that you use this for each Question answered
1.1
Heading 2 suggested that you use this for each sub-heading in each question answered
1.1.1 Heading 3 you may use this heading as appropriate
