Systems Thinking and Inventory Management at Woolworths

This assignment analyzes the inventory management problems faced by Woolworths Australia using a systems thinking approach. The student investigates the issue of stock management, where the retail chain struggles to meet market demands due to poor inventory control, particularly after partnering with a new supplier. The assignment employs the CATWOE framework (Customers, Actors, Transformation process, World view, Owner, and Environmental constraints) to analyze the situation, identifying stakeholders, their perspectives, and the transformation needed to improve inventory management. The root definition of the problem is established, highlighting how inventory issues disrupt market needs, leading to customer dissatisfaction and potential financial losses. The assignment provides a rich picture and references supporting the analysis, demonstrating the application of systems thinking to a real-world business challenge. The goal is to provide a comprehensive assessment of how Systems Thinking can be applied to organizational problems.

Running head: SYSTEMS THINKING
COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Author note

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Part 1
This research paper would be taking up the case of Woolworths Australia, which is a
major retail chain in the country. The main issue that this company has been facing is in stock
management. The company has recently tied up with a new supplier, and it is evidently
taking up a large number of stock of one set of products, while also ignoring to take up a few
amount of stock for another set of products. This has led to the retail chain not being able to
cater to the demands in the market properly. While customers have complained about not
finding products in its supermarket, which are of high demand, they have also complained of
getting similar products from other supermarkets at a lower cost. This could all be indirectly
related to the poor inventory management of the organization, and is an issue that needs
systems thinking to resolve properly.
CATWOE
CATWOE stands for – customers, actors, transformation process, world view, owner
and environmental constraints.
Customers – Customers have regularly complained about the main thing that has been faced
by them in the form of not being able to find products which are in high demand in market,
and as a result, have to purchase products from another source. They have also complained
about high prices of products than in the rest of the market, as a result of the poor inventory
management (Mayoza et al., 2018).
Actors – The actors refer to the main stakeholders who are involved in the problem. The
suppliers are suffering from a problem of erratic consignment of goods, and as a result, have
also been facing the problem of inconsistent profits and income flow. The employees and
management department of the company have been facing problems because of the low sales
(Trongtortam et al., 2018).

2SYSTEMS THINKING
Transformation process – The organization needs a change in the kind of inventory
management that they do in order to make sure that the main problem which the organization
is facing is eliminated. The current business requires to change and step by step find the root
cause of the negligence involved in the inventory management.
World-view – From a world or holistic view, it could be understood that the main problem
caused in this regard, is that it is disrupting the demands in the market. There are insufficient
products that are in high demand in the market, and too many products, that do not have that
much of a demand in the market. Therefore, it could be said that this issue has been
disrupting the market needs.
Owner – For the owners of the organization, this is a severe problem. This is because of the
fact that if this issue continues to persist, there would be no sustainable development, and the
business might not be able to sustain itself, mainly because the profit margins would continue
to significantly fall (Mahalepa & Goede, 2018).
Environmental Constraints – This issue however, has no environmental perspective related
to it. it is just disrupting the market needs, which could be the only environmental perspective
in this regard.
Root Definition
From the above discussion, it could be said that the root definition of the problem is
that various stakeholders of the organization have been facing the problem of inventory
management, that is disrupting the market needs by having too many products that do not
have a high demand in the market, and low stock of products, which do have a high demand.
As a result, customers are not getting their needs fulfilled, and also, prices are going high.
They are seeking other retails for this issue, and as a result, profits are going down, which
could run the business to the ground in the near future.

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Part 2
Rich Picture
(Source – Author)

4SYSTEMS THINKING
References
Mayoza, L., Agus, A., Lili, W., & Rizal, A. (2018). ANALYTICAL BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT ON NEON TETRA (PARACHEIRODON INNESI)
ORNAMENTAL FISH CULTIVATION. GSJ, 6(7), 938.
Mahalepa, T., & Goede, R. (2018, January). INDUSTRY NEEDS FOR DATA
WAREHOUSING STUDENTS: USING SSM AS HERMENEUTIC DATA
ANALYSIS TOOL FOR INTERPRETIVE INTERVIEW DATA. In Proceedings of
the 61st Annual Meeting of the ISSS-2017 Vienna, Austria (Vol. 2017, No. 1).
Trongtortam, S., Francis, H., Taylor, M., Sudirman, S., & Symons, A. (2018, September).
Development of a Preliminary Model Guide for Using Mobile Learning Technology
in Resource–Limited Primary Schools in Thailand. In 2018 11th International
Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (DeSE) (pp. 83-88). IEEE.