Instructions for assessment

Your summative assessment for this module takes the form of an essay in 2500 words, +/- 10%. This is an individual assignment. You must choose an organisation or business which is either an automotive company (manufacturing industry) or a hospital (service sector). It is the student’s free choice which hospital or automotive company they choose.  However, the hospital must be based in the UK, the automotive company needs to have a presence in the UK i.e. they are available in the UK.  The You need to produce an essay elaborating on the key operation, logistics and supply chain management issues faced by the operations and supply chain manager(s) in this particular organisation / business.

You can collect data from resources like websites, books, journal articles and grey reports. Some case studies are available to help you collect required data. It makes sense to select a company where you work, have worked or know people who work there.

By focusing on the operational and supply chain issues, you should seek to identify and clarify how the operation functions and supports the market that it serves. What service delivery system (s) or manufacturing process (es) does it use? What infrastructure does it use to manage these delivery systems? And how, together, do these support the market (s) that it serves? A critical, detailed and relevant analysis should be made of the various components.

Based on your analysis, you are expected to make recommendations about how the business can improve its performance. Consider triple bottom line – described as the incorporation of economic, environmental and social factors as the three dimensions of sustainability in business practice – in your analysis.

As it might be impossible to analyse all the areas of operations, logistics and supply chain management, you

should also decide which area (s) to cover in your discussion. Therefore, choose two of the following areas in managing operations, logistics and supply chain.

·        
New product/ service development and process

·        
Managing quality

·        
Location and Layout

·        
Managing people in operation and supply chains

·        
Logistics mix: Channels, networks, transportation, managing inventory and capacity

·        
Managing business relationships in supply chains

·        
JIT, Lean and Agility

To conduct writing the essay, students need to read and refer to core text books and academic journals as well as source of their data collection (mentioned before).

The essay will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Formative Assessment

You should write down an essay plan (500 words) to introduce

–         
selected business/ organisation

–         
two selected areas of Operations and Supply Chain Management

–         
theories and techniques that should be applied

–         
potential areas of improvement which need to be reviewed critically

Week 2/3 assessment brief and outline, Week 4 essay plan is covered and Week 5 in seminar feedback/discussion based upon the essay plan.  Please e-mail your seminar tutor a copy of your plan so they can monitor progress, but it is THE STUDENTS RESPONSIBILITY to bring a printed copy to the seminar Week 5.

How will we support you with your assessment?

·        
Two dedicated seminars in week three and ten

·        
Formative feedback on case studies in seminar

·        
Formative assessment: writing an essay plan in week 4

·        
Links to the assessment throughout your seminars and team-building session specifically

·        
Coursework tutorials with your seminar tutor during reading week and revision week

·        
Coursework tutorial at week 11

·        
FAQs on Moodle

How will your work be assessed?

Your work will be assessed by a subject expert who will use the marking grid provided in this assessment brief. When you access your marked work it is important that you reflect on the feedback so that you can use it to improve future assignments.

Referencing

You MUST use the Harvard System. The Harvard system is very easy to use once you become familiar with it.

Assignment submissions

The Business School requires a digital version of all assignment submissions. These must be submitted via Turnitin on the module’s Moodle site. They must be submitted as a Word file (not as a pdf) and must not include scanned in text or text boxes. They must be submitted by 2pm on the given date. For further general details on coursework preparation refer to the online information via StudentZone http://studentzone.roehampton.ac.uk/howtostudy/index.html.

Resit

Resit submission date: TBC

For students who are offered a resit you are required to improve and resubmit your original work as well as adding a further reflective commentary discussing what you have learned from the process.

You must resubmit your work using the specific resit Turnitin link on Moodle. You should:

1.         
Review your previously submitted work and read carefully the feedback given by the marker.

2.         
Use this feedback to help you revisit and rewrite your work, improving it in the areas identified as weak in the original marking process

3.         
Include with your resubmission an additional reflective piece (up to 300/500 words#) on what you understand was weak, how you set about addressing this and what you have learned from this that may help you with further assignments. You should address the following specifically:

i) 
Identify tutor feedback points on your original work and identify where/how the resit work has changed (give page number) in response to feedback

ii) 
Identify the lessons you have learnt from doing the resit

iii) 
Reflect on how your feedback and this process will help you improve future assignments

If you did not submit work at the first opportunity you cannot reflect on your feedback. However, you are still required to submit a reflective piece in which you identify your reasons for non-submission, the implications of non-submission for your future success and how you propose to address this in the future. If you have issues with confidentiality of your reasons for non-submission then you could reflect on how you have met the learning outcomes for the module, how you can use what you have done on the module to support your future career and what skills/employability attributes you feel the module has helped you to develop.

If you were deferred at the first assessment opportunity you do not need to include the reflective piece as this is a first submission at a later date, not a resit.

The original marking criteria will still apply (see marking grid provided above*) except that the 10% weighting for presentation will be awarded instead to your reflective piece

Mitigating circumstances/what to do if you cannot submit a piece of work or attend your presentation

The University Mitigating Circumstances Policy can be found on the University website –  Mitigating Circumstances