Essay Planning Form

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Understanding Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Essay Planning Form
You need to read the Assessment Brief which is available on Moodle before filling this form.
• Student Name:
• Date:
•
Which organisation (s) would you like to choose? Please write the name of
organisation of your selected option.
Bosch
Which of the two areas would you like to investigate?
• 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 and Lean
Give a brief outline of how you are going to tackle the essay in view of:
ü The context of the essay (e.g. Private company, successful company, any specific companies,
Pioneer companies, …) including examples that you intend to use:
The constant ability of developing and processing new services as well as managing quality of a business
are essential to become a leading global supplier such as the successful German company Bosch Group.
With 78,5 Million euros of sales revenue in 2018, Bosch is seen as the leading global supplier of four
different sectors providing: Mobility Solutions (61% of their sales are related to the automotive industry),
industrial technology (9% of sales), Consumer goods (23% of sales) and Energy and building technology
(7% of sales) (Bosch Annual Report, 2019).
In the following essay issues regarding operations, logistics and supply chain management will be
evaluated. All three topics are necessary for Bosch to ensure good quality and customer satisfaction. In
order to outline those aspects, the assignment will focus on new product and service development and
process as well as managing quality. Bosch is currently facing several problems which can be improved –
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these will be discussed in the following to ensure enhancement regarding Sustainability, Responsiveness
and Innovation.
ü The command words (e.g. Discuss etc):
Evaluate, Interprete, Assess, Analyze, Indicate, Debate, Develop, Estimate, outline, State, Show, Define
List three initial discussion or analysis points that you intend to form the main part of
your essay (with respect to your selected areas)
To ensure customer satisfaction, rapid responsiveness is essential. Bosch needs to have access to reliable
suppliers to provide reliable supply of goods themselves. In 2017, BMW was not able to complete
productions due to a shortage of goods at Bosch. Bosch needs to learn improve reliability to avoid loss of
money and sales (McGee, 2017).
Since technology is constantly evolving, a company mainly focusing on technological services like Bosch
needs to keep up with that. IoT (internet of Things) plays an important role in that topic. IoT can assure
huge efficiency in performance and is seen as one of the “most important development of the 21st
century” (Mallon, 2018). Many businesses are currently working on it and so needs Bosch.
To consider Triple Bottoom line and link it to the selected topics
Outline which theories you intend to include in your analysis within the essay (e.g. House
of Quality for product design or TQM for Managing quality)
Total quality management is a good way to ensure quality is good. For example, Just in Time as well as
continuous improvement are important when it comes to Bosch since both are essential for rapid
responsiveness and customer satisfaction. Considering the BMW issue, Bosch should focus on Marriotts’s
LEARN theory which focusses on an available plan from the manager when a system fails and the service
cannot be delivered.
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Since Bosch is also supplying household goods, product development and process is vital. Through QFD
(quality function development) or the House of quality Bosch will be able to meet customer needs and
assure their loyalty. One crucial for that is the already mentioned sustainability of products as well as IoT.
List three key resources that you will be consulting in your planning. These resources should
be used for either data collection of your selected organisation or finding appropriate
theories and successful examples that could be applied to the selected organisation.
1.Operations management: Sustainability and supply chain management (Book)
2. Operations Management (By Nigel Slack) (Book)
3. Bosch.com (Internet) and some. Other online resources
4. Academic Journal Articles