Sample MEM604 Engineering Management Capstone Assignment

MEM604 Engineering Management Capstone Assignment Sample

Individual/Group - Individual
Length - 2500 words (+/- 10%)

Learning Outcomes

The Subject Learning Outcomes demonstrated by successful completion of the task below include:

b) Evaluate and apply research ethics in engineering management research.

c) Assess and employ complex research design and methods and problem solving skills in a research project.

d) Critically reflect and apply learning and knowledge from previous MEM subjects to an engineering management?based research topic in a real business environment.

Assessment Task for Online Assignment Help

Completion and acceptance of a final research project report in 2500 words (+/- 10%) to include: the title of the research topic; aim of the research: research questions addressed; methodology, research ethics, research limitations; description of the research completed; findings and recommendations; research gaps and further research required; references.

Please refer to the Task Instructions for details on how to complete this task.

Instruction

To complete this assessment, you need to organise and write a report on the research that you have done throughout the subject, including building on the research that you presented in Assessment 2.

Below is a guide to structuring the report:

1. Student name, student number, academic supervisor
2. Introduction
3. Title of the research topic
4. Project purpose and objectives
5. Research questions
6. Methodology
7. Summary of research conducted against research questions
8. Findings
9. Recommendations
10. Conclusions
11. Further research required
12. References
13. Attachments

Solution

Introduction

A project is undertaken to solve an issue or meet customer requirements. The task for Capstone was conducted to measure sustainability management to maintain an adequate supply chain for Tesco. Tesco has a complex supply chain connecting with varied local, regional, and international suppliers; hence requires optimisation and utilisation to reduce costs and waste while protecting and promoting related communities. The project has been conducted to understand issues that Tesco faces in its supply chain and measures it can adopt to promote sustainability at all levels.

Title of Research Topic- “SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT FOR SUPPLY CHAIN EFFICIENCY OF TESCO”

Project purpose and Objectives

The project's purpose was to signify sustainability management to promote effectiveness in Tesco's supply chain. Currently, Tesco has been making efforts to manage its supply chain by embedding sustainability principles. Although the retail giant has faced many issues, the ongoing pandemic has increased. It has become essential for Tesco to measure gaps at all levels to improve cost- efficiencies, reduce wastage and protect all stakeholders' interests.

Objectives of Study

The purpose helped to develop project objectives that have been discussed below.

• Evaluating challenges Tesco faces that impact the supply chain hinders business growth.
• Ascertaining impacts of sustainability on Tesco’s overall supply chain management.
• Analysing measures that could solve supply chain issues faced by Tesco provides a guideline for companies operating in the retail sector.

Research Questions

To achieve meaningful insights for the project, research questions were developed.

• Question 1: What sustainability challenges in supply chain management are currently being faced by Tesco?

• Question 2: What are a sustainable supply chain's potential impacts on achieving business growth?

• Question 3: How do Tesco measure requirements and maintain an efficient supply chain?

• Question 4: How new and advanced technology will benefit the supply chain management of retail companies like Tesco?

Methodology

Research onion to choose appropriate methods for conducting research for the project. Considering the layers, from the external to an internal layer of the onion, interpretivism philosophy was used for understanding factual information and interpreting it accordingly. The research approach of the deductive paradigm was applied to realise existing sustainable practices and align the supply chain with a real-time company named Tesco Plc.

It was essential to align the project study’s aims and objectives while saving time; secondary research methods were used. Since the second strategy was used, techniques like qualitative and descriptive were used while finding articles and browsing company reports and other information online. The descriptive and qualitative tools have helped collect information while making the findings more inclusive, logical, usable, and validated. The innermost circle of the research onion was data collection and analysis methods. The secondary information was collected and published from 2012 to 2022 online. In addition, Tesco's website, reports, peer-reviewed journals, and publicly available articles were used. All the pieces were analysed through descriptive and qualitative tools for deriving meaningful insights.

Summary of Findings

Collected information helped to answer the research questions identified in the initial research proposal. The findings helped to understand that Tesco Plc has been facing supply chain disruptions owing to Brexit, pandemics, staff shortages and other factors. There is a lack of technological integration within the supply chain, which has distribution challenges and hence, many stores’ lacks supply to fill up spaces on the shelves. An efficient supply chain is essential to maintain quality products, brand reputation and customer expectations. Hence, Tesco Plc uses storage information technology systems which help it to order directly from the manufacturer, thus, retaining the quality without the fuss of packaging, change of temperature and others. Although, it lacks innovation and use of technology in the entire supply chain.

It has created an accelerator tracker program for tracking innovations with suppliers in the food supply chain to reduce wastage and costs and improve optimisation. Although, the sustainability tracking could be done with the UN's tracker for Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, investing in advanced technologies like Block Chain and AI could improve transparency, interoperability, and cost-effectiveness while fulfilling sustainable business goals.
Findings

Challenges Faced by Tesco

In 2021, Tesco faced significant supply chain disruption when shoppers found most of the shelves empty. Food and consumer goods shelves were open, and Tesco claimed that distribution challenges had led to such a crisis. This indicates that Tesco lacked long-term planning and trustable relations with suppliers, which led to supply and distribution issues across all stores. To address the problems, Tesco improved rail distribution, providing a bonus of £1000 to drivers. The supply chain and distribution challenges have increased with Brexit, allowing only two trips across the EU borders in a week.

In addition, the supply chain issues have increased with high shipping costs and blocking Suez Canal (Reuters, 2021). This became acute when Tesco and other retailers in the UK faced problems like staff shortages that impacted operations in warehousing, packing and other related functions. Since the pandemic accompanied with Ukraine -Russia crisis, all petrol pumping stations are facing a higher crisis due to lack of supply. This has impacted the transportation of goods, consumer goods and other products in Large or heavy vehicles requiring a substantial amount of fuel.

In this view, amidst the lockdown, uncertainty and a series of extended lockdowns provided the impetus to sell more, where the sales and profits were recorded at 16.6%. Even though the sales of Tesco increased, the company faced acute supply chain disruption, which impacted its operational and other functions (Clayton, 2021).

Tesco procures its supplies from different underdeveloped nations or lower socio-economic regions where unethical sourcing is common. The sustainability challenge is further increased by using heavy and oversized good vehicles, which emit high GHG and pollute the environment. Packaging and transportation materials must also be shifted to sustainable, recyclable, and reusable products.

Potential Impacts of The Supply Chain on Achieving Business Growth

In recent times, Tesco Plc has had many issues in its supply chain and distribution functions driven by internal and external forces. As mentioned, most of Tesco Plc's shelves were empty during Christmas. If such incidents occur frequently, consumer purchasing from competitor stores like Aldi will increase, reducing the market share of Tesco Plc in the UK. This will result in a shift in consumer preferences.

Supplier relationship is the core factor that severally impacts the business, as Tesco Plc resells the manufactured products at the lowest prices. Aldi sells the same products at lower prices, while Amazon provides faster delivery of groceries to its members. Hence, the suppliers might shift to other opportunities like the rise of e-commerce and competitive pricing offered by Aldi and others.

In addition, supermarkets are obligated to pay 1% of the revenue generated in the UK owing to the mistreatment of suppliers. Hence, optimisation and an efficient supply chain are essential to retain customers, strengthen supplier relations, satisfy stakeholders and cope with stiff competition in the retail industry (Topham, 2021). Sustainability is vital to improving brand reputation and reaping short-, medium- and long-term objectives.

In this view, Tesco has initiated many strategies to cope with its sustainable supply chain. Tesco Plc is the first retailer to offer sustainability associated with the finances of the supply chain. Thus, the company motivates its suppliers through monetary bonuses for applying approaches that reduce GHG emissions (SDG, 2022). Besides, Tesco Plc has collaborated with WWF and has launched an accelerator programme for tracking food systems and inventions.

These initiatives are in the initial stages and are expected to improve business goals and objectives. Hence, such strategies will prove effective in the long run and will positively impact be achieving business objectives. In addition, if supply chain management sustainability practices are efficiently embedded in the long run, Tesco Plc might benefit from the following reasons.

Reduction in Overall Environmental Impacts

EU has tightened environmental norms, which has obligated retailers to reduce emissions. Thus, following sustainability in the supply chain will help align with international and regional laws and enable cost savings. It helps to reduce labour costs by more than 50%, along with an improvement in profit margins by 0.25%. Hence, reducing wastage and improving efficiency during transportation through good heavy vehicles.

Improving Supply Continuity

Diversifying the supply chain in Tesco's operation avoids over-reliance on the singular chain. The pandemic to Brexit and other factors has disrupted the supply chain and distribution challenges. Tesco has already initiated diversification by collaborating with sustainable supply chain start-ups, which helps the company to maintain resilience in meeting business objectives (Nutburn, 2019).

Improving Business Reputation

Since Tesco Plc has initiated sustainable supply chain strategies, improving the lives of people linked at different levels of the supply chain will help enhance business growth. The supply chain efficiency improves brand reputation, which enhances business growth. A high brand reputation will help rebuild trust and cope with the competition posed by the UK retail industry (Nutburn, 2019).

Companies like Tesco Plc need to embed sustainable supply chains like ISO 14001 to identify gaps that could hinder efficient green savings. This accreditation supports environmental compliance, improves brand reputation, and opens more business opportunities.

Measuring Performance and Embedding Sustainable, Efficient Supply Chain

Sustainability in the supply chain is a newer concept for Tesco Plc as it initiated the strategy after facing a supply and distribution-related crisis. It has launched accelerator programs for tracking food systems to measure its sustainability initiative with start-up companies. Since Tesco Plc operates in different categories, it sources food products from local farmers and farmlands. Thus, accelerator programs will help to track innovation in food sources, thus reducing impacts on food security systems (Tesco Plc. 2022).

In addition, the innovation connection was built by Tesco Plc in collaboration with WWF to address barriers to the sustainable innovation of food supply chains. This strategy will also help to scale ideas and technology for which the start-up supplier companies must pair with pitch scale up- projects. These partners will be provided funds with £150,000 to scale innovation (Hart, 2021).

The current tracking program is only linked to the food supply chain, although its overall supply chain still lacks a measuring system for aligning with sustainability. Hence, United Nations has developed SDG targets that will enable global development (SDG, 2022). Tesco Plc could use the SDG tracker to measure its performance in different environmental-related goals. Tesco Plc can align its sustainable goals with 17 developed of them developed by the UN that will help to protect the environment while also achieving desired business goals (SDG, 2022).

Benefits of New and Advanced Technology in Supply Chain Management in Retail Companies

The supply chain has a vital role to play in maintaining product quality. Well-organised supply chains and distribution channels help reduce waste and manage costs while ensuring product quality. Tesco Plc faced supply chain crises when most of its shelves were empty. Thus, it revamped its supply chain, which could help procure supplies before the open frame. Although, the pandemic and other external forces again imposed a crisis that resulted in delays in deliveries and loss of opportunities (Supply Chain. In. 2020).

Besides, new storage technologies helped to retain this crisis to a large extent. This technology allows Tesco Plc to receive perishable items directly from production units, reducing wastage, packing and additional time required during distribution (Tesco Plc. 2022). This has helped to provide fresh products from manufacturers located within the UK and helped Tesco Plc to combat some parts of the crisis that was imposed due to national and international lockdowns.

Although, there is a lack of advanced technologies that could help cope with the crisis. Big data can enable historical information to study changing trends and related factors. In addition, artificial intelligence can be used in varied ways, like planning demand and understanding purchasing decisions. In recent times, Tesco Plc has used AI in storage technology; however entire functions should be embedded with such technologies. This will help in further optimisation and efficient supply chain.

Blockchain technology is considered the future of supply, which will help companies like Tesco Plc drive supply chain transparency. It will help to improve traceability, thus, reducing loss and enhancing visibility (Deloitte, 2017). It will minimise complex paperwork and help Tesco Plc lower its administrative costs. Blockchain technology will help Tesco Plc improve interoperability while enabling firms to embed sustainability principles.

Recommendations

Tesco Plc requires developing Sustainable supply chain goals, which should be aligned with those 14 objectives set by the UN. This will help meet local and international environmental norms that will promote the brand reputation and overall community development and optimise the supply chain. UN tracking tools are recommended for measuring sustainability goals and developing new milestones.

In addition, Tesco must adopt and invest in new technologies like Blockchain, AI, and significant to improve suppliers' transparency, predict trends, reduce wastage and costs, to optimise inventories to reduce the incidence of empty shelves. The company recently lacks innovation in the supply chain; hence, distribution in all stores is affected by changes in the internal and external environment. Thus, newer technologies will help build transparency, thereby planning alternative strategies without compromising customer expectations and profits.

Tesco Plc is suggested to embed sustainability within the supply chain, which will help to build resiliency and promote growth. In addition, Tesco Plc needs to develop strategies for ethical conduct while procuring from lower socio-economic regions. The supply chain management should aim to foster all development while coping with the competition.

Supplier codes are suggested to be developed to secure long-term relationships with suppliers while ensuring the right quality and quantity are delivered within the requested time frame. The existing supplier base should be trained on modern technologies to adopt sustainable and contemporary methods to promote higher efficiency.
Conclusion

Tesco Plc is a renowned retail company in the UK facing major supply chain issues linked with sustainability. The project aimed to understand the sustainable challenge faced within the supply chain of Tesco Plc along with the benefits of new technology, measuring the goals and impacts of the supply chain on business objectives. Tesco Plc lacks innovation and alignment with global sustainable goals. The lack of appropriate strategies has implicated the application of modern techniques to improve transparency and costs while building the resiliency of the supply chains. Tesco Plc needs to align its sustainable goals with the UN to acquire global standards in supply chain management. Also, Blockchain is one of the modern technologies considered to be the future of supply chains. Hence, the company should invest in tools to optimise supply chain operations.

References