MAN203: Logistics and Supply Chain Management Assessment 1, Semester 1

This document presents a comprehensive solution to a logistics and supply chain management assignment, addressing key concepts and challenges within the field. The assignment explores core components of supply chain management, including subsystems, goals, and strategic planning aspects such as inventory, warehouse, and production planning. It delves into the impact of globalization, identifying challenges like financial volatility, customer demand, and complexities in supplier landscapes. The solution also examines both local and global supply chain management strategies and emphasizes the importance of incorporating environmental performance and sustainability into supply chain practices, including logistics measures and sustainable product sourcing. The document is a valuable resource for students seeking to understand and excel in logistics and supply chain management.

Running head: LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Logistics and supply chain management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Answer to question 1:.................................................................................................................2
Requirement a)...........................................................................................................................2
Requirement b)...........................................................................................................................3
Answer to question 2:.................................................................................................................3
Requirement a)...........................................................................................................................3
Requirement b)...........................................................................................................................3
Answer to question 3:.................................................................................................................3
Requirement a)...........................................................................................................................3
Requirement b)...........................................................................................................................3
Answer to question 4:.................................................................................................................3
Requirement a)...........................................................................................................................3
Requirement b)...........................................................................................................................3

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Answer to question 1:
Requirement a)
The subsystem of supply chain management helps in storing the information about the
indirect and direct materials such as record of status, agreed terms of trade, several points of
contact in the suppliers and the records of contacts between various in the enterprise. There
are three sub systems that is incorporated into the model of supply chain management and
these comprise of retailer system, manufacturing system and demo system. Firstly, products
are sold to the customers by retailers and as required by the retailer system, manufacturing
system helps in manufacturing the products and this is followed by the demo system and it
has the purpose of setting up the application of demo to test the system (Giannakis and
Papadopoulos 2016).
Regardless of whether the organization is large or small, supply chain management
forms a very important part as it helps in actively managing the activities of supply chain so
that the value of customers are maximized and organizations are bale to gain sustainable
competitive advantage. All the sub systems of supply chain management helps in integration
of the supply chain of the organization for streamlining the distributions, inventory,
operations and production. The basis of the tasks that is carried out within the framework of
the subsystem of the logistics supply chain is primarily on providing the raw materials that is
required along with the products, spare parts and other resources which accompanies the
information (Yu et al. 2016).
Requirement b)
The four goals of supply chain include reduction of cost, customer service,
profitability and environment. One of the goals is to achieve fulfilment of demand of

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customers efficiently that helps in driving the outstanding value of customers, building the
resilience of network and enhancing the responsiveness of organization. The profitability of
supply chain is correlated with the value and with its function associated with the capturing
the shares of market and driving the growth of revenue and with many of the retailers using
delivery as the competitive weapon that helps in enhancing then profitability of the
organization. In addition to this, efficient management of every phase of the process of
supply chain helps in keeping the supply chain expenses at lowest and thereby reducing the
overall cost. Sustainability goal form also an important part of goal of supply chain
management as it is essential to determine the impact of supply chain activities on the
environment (Yazdani et al. 2017). Therefore, customer service would be ranked first
followed by profitability, reduction of cost and environment. It is so because customer
serving helps in enhancing the value of organization and this leads to improvement in profits
and thereby reduction in the costs.
Answer to question 2:
Requirement a)
Strategic planning of the supply chain management is the process of designing the
strategy of the supply chain activities of the organization. The three aspects of supply chain
management that requires planning include inventory management,
Management of inventory is about controlling and overseeing the storage, order and
usage of all the components that is used by the organization in the production, distribution
and selling. Business would face severe financial problems if the inventories are not properly
managed or if it is mismanaged. Warehouse and storage is another aspect of supply chain that
seeks planning as it helps inn managing the flow of goods from the warehouse to retailers. It
is essential for the organization to plan the warehouse facilities along with other activities

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such as identifying, receiving and holding, preparing and assembling. Another aspect is the
production planning and scheduling that helps in providing the basis for the design of
manufacturing and production. Production in the right quantities cam be optimized by the
campaign and planning process and this has an impact on improving the distribution of the
merchandize in the design of supply chain. This would have an effect on increasing the
shipping cost and reduces the risk of insufficient availability of the product. Planning of
transportation also forms an important part of the aspects of the supply chain management
(Fernie and Sparks 2018).
Requirement b)
The short term objective of supply chain management is to ensure efficiency which is
done by the development of effective supply chain management system. Some of the other
short term strategy involves meeting the demand of customers and minimizing the cost of
inventory. All these strategies helps in managing the inventories in an adequate manner.
Some of the long term goals that is achieved with the help of long term strategy
includes quality improvement, optimizing logistics and transportation and maintaining long
term stability. The objective of long term strategy is to develop long term stability of the
business value, customer value, growth and profitability of the business (Silvestre 2015).
Moreover, it also intends to manage the supply chain by focusing on the customer value and
controlling the trade-off between service and costs.

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Answer to question 3:
Requirement a)
Some of the global challenges of supply chain management includes increasing
financial volatility and customer demand volatility, increasing environmental concerns and
increasing complexities in the landscape of suppliers. The demands and needs of customers
are changing along with their preferences pattern and it is required by the organization to
meet the changing needs of customers. It makes it difficult for the supply chain activities to
adjust to the changing needs. For example, the Eco label criteria for textiles include some of
the chemicals that is used such as treatment of waste water in the dye houses, production and
the quality of finished goods. There is a lack of marketing channel management and
integration and development of insight that results in the collaboration and coordination of
the channel partners. There are many complex challenges that are faced by the supply chain
management and it required a collaborated efforts on part of the organization (Formentini and
Taticchi 2016).
Requirement b)
Management of supply chain can be one of the complex challenges faced by the
organisation with the identified challenges such as process transparency and guaranteeing
cost. Control management of the supply chain is the coordinated target system along with a
consistent performance indicator system for measuring the performance of the process. It
enables the supply chain in the identification of the fractures and the potential faults in the
very initial stage. There should be objective recording and continuous recording of the entire
performance of supply chain management in the control management (Dubey et al. 2017).
For example, structural improvements in the supply chain and the methods of lean

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management. In addition to this, there can be consistent digitization, integration and
transparency of the process.
Local management of supply chain on other hand includes the implementation of the
strategies locally that is it can be internally implemented by the organization. There are few
basis of implementing the supply chain within the organization in a successful manner such
as identifying the correct balance between local management and central control
management. Example of some of the local management of supply chain activities include
gathering market intelligence, customers service management, analysis of customer
profitability, local delivery and warehouse management, human resource management and
liaison with marketing management and sales (Chin et al. 2015).
Answer to question 4:
Requirement a)
It is identified by the statement that the companies should incorporate the
environmental performance into the supply chain management systems for evaluating its
overall performance. It is required by the business to find the environmental risks that should
be pass on to the suppliers with the added responsibilities that is placed on the supply chain
activities. With the increasing responsibility issues and the awareness of the environmental
concerns associated with the use of products, organizations are required to implement
sustainable and innovative solutions across the whole network of supply chain (Bsr.org
2019). Therefore, it can be inferred from the statement that the supply chain process should
implement the sustainable solutions and undertake the sustainability initiatives.
Requirement b)
The performance of the supply chain on sustainability related matters include the
adoption of logistics related measures that would be aimed at minimizing the impact created

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by such activities on the environment such as adoption of alternative technical systems. There
are few business drivers associated with the sustainability of the supply chain management
such as realizing efficiency, managing business risk and creation of sustainable products.
These include sourcing the raw materials with environmental and social impacts that
explicitly considers such as emission of relatively fewer greenhouse gases throughout the
lifecycle and biologically based plastics. In addition to this, there should be reduction in the
cost without creating a negative impact on the shipping products and operations. There
should be well partnering with the suppliers which would help in ensuring that the
management practices has minimum standards such as contracts and workers, minimum
hiring age and safety and health conditions (Silvestre 2015). For example, a wallpaper
company of Finland has initiated the development of the products based on the council
standard of forest stewardship after it was announced by the government to source the
products by adhering to the FSC standard.

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References list:
Bsr.org., 2019. [online] Available at:
https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_UNGC_SupplyChainReport.pdf [Accessed 11 Aug. 2019].
Chin, T.A., Tat, H.H. and Sulaiman, Z., 2015. Green supply chain management,
environmental collaboration and sustainability performance. Procedia Cirp, 26, pp.695-699.
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Childe, S.J., Shibin, K.T. and Wamba, S.F.,
2017. Sustainable supply chain management: framework and further research
directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, pp.1119-1130.
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Childe, S.J., Shibin, K.T. and Wamba, S.F.,
2017. Sustainable supply chain management: framework and further research
directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, pp.1119-1130.
Fernie, J. and Sparks, L. eds., 2018. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and
new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.

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Formentini, M. and Taticchi, P., 2016. Corporate sustainability approaches and governance
mechanisms in sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112,
pp.1920-1933.
Giannakis, M. and Papadopoulos, T., 2016. Supply chain sustainability: A risk management
approach. International Journal of Production Economics, 171, pp.455-470.
Prajogo, D., Oke, A. and Olhager, J., 2016. Supply chain processes: Linking supply logistics
integration, supply performance, lean processes and competitive performance. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36(2), pp.220-238.
Silvestre, B.S., 2015. Sustainable supply chain management in emerging economies:
Environmental turbulence, institutional voids and sustainability trajectories. International
Journal of Production Economics, 167, pp.156-169.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management
and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Yazdani, M., Zarate, P., Coulibaly, A. and Zavadskas, E.K., 2017. A group decision making
support system in logistics and supply chain management. Expert Systems with
Applications, 88, pp.376-392.
Yu, Y., Wang, X., Zhong, R.Y. and Huang, G.Q., 2016. E-commerce logistics in supply
chain management: Practice perspective. Procedia Cirp, 52, pp.179-185.