OPER1160 Group Assignment S2019

Introduction to Supply Chain and Operations Management

OPER1160 Group Assignment S2019

Marked out of 60 worth 15% of the course mark

Main Learning Objectives Being Utilized In This Assignment:

1. Work effectively in groups to accomplish objectives in a timely fashion.
2. Communicate information accurately and credibly in oral, written and graphic formats.
3. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of in-sourcing (make) and outsourcing (buy).
4. Prepare a recommendation on supplier selection using the weighted-point evaluation system.
5. Describe some of the concepts of an effective Total Quality Management (TQM) program including: Continuous Improvement, Employee Empowerment, and Benchmarking.
6. Apply time management and organizational skills to facilitate the completion of tasks and to meet deadlines.
7. Discuss the determinants of service quality and how it can be measured.

Students will be organized into groups of 4.  Each student in that group is to sign a team contract, create a group list in their Conestoga e-mail account, exchange schedules and contact information and set up a common file area.

Introduction

Concol Customer Services (CCS) is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that caters to individual consumers and small businesses who require a high level of service and are willing to pay a premium for it. Specifically, CCS offers state-of-the-art office applications and web-building software and design, as well as plenty of secure storage space and fast access via its high-speed servers. The territory it serves is Ontario and east.  It offers its service in English and French.

Karen Bradenton, Vice President-Marketing, puts it this way: “There are a lot of companies out there promising the cheapest Internet access.  But what do you get for your money?  Limited service, slow or no-access, a mailbox full of spam, and an endless stream of system crashes.  And I won’t even mention the lack of support if you have a technical question! Our support desk quickly determines where the customers’ problem lies and gets it fixed fast!  For a few dollars more a month, we give our customers the environment they need to be productive–without having to think about whether or not they can retrieve their documents, or whether their Web site has crashed.  Our focus is on providing an “exceptional” customer experience with each interaction. It’s no surprise that we have the highest customer satisfaction and retention rates in Canada.”

The Online Support Desk

One of CCS’s services is its support desk.  The online support works as follows:  Customers who are experiencing technical problems, or who simply have questions enter a one-on-one online “chat room”, where they can interact directly with an expert.  Problems are usually resolved within 6 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCS. Presently, CCS has enough capacity to handle up to 1,000,000 requests per year, although management doesn’t expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 800,000 per year.

A firm located in Cape Town, South Africa, has approached CCS about outsourcing the online support desk.  The offer is attractive.  The Cape Town firm’s own personnel would handle the support desk functions.  These personnel are fluent in English, a fewcan speak French and some have college degrees or appropriate technical backgrounds.  Since they are located in South Africa, labour costs would be a portion of what they are in Canada. (Ontario). This saving that would be passed on, in part, to CCS.  And, because the “chat room” exists on the Internet, CCS customers should be unaware of the switch.

CCS management has put together Figure 1, outlining the yearly costs associated with the current system and the South African proposal.  As a team, you have been given the job of preparing answers to a set of questions. They are to be prepared as a written report for your manager (instructor).

Figure 1: Yearly Costs of the Present and Proposed Contact (Call) Centre Alternatives

Source: internal records and written proposal from the Cape Town company 

Questions to Answer:

• Analysis for the Case (27 marks)

Process: Based on your total cost analysis of Figure 1 and the findings from your research on the industry, list and explain your choices for the five performance dimensions or criteria, then utilize a weighted-point evaluation matrix to evaluate the two options. You are to select 4 additional criteria in addition to cost based on your industry research.

a)A total cost analysis based on the above chart should be shown to justify costs. Totals and conclusions must be clearly stated for the reader (3 marks).But, cost is just one of the five criteria and should be included as such in the write-up.

1. b) Then list and explain why you selected the four additional criteriathat were researched. Explain why each is important to consider when making this sourcing decision. Ensure that these dimensions assist in differentiating between the 2 options. Be careful to avoid overlap between them.  Each one should be independent of the others.  (12 marks – 3 marks for each of the 4 additional criteria)
2. c) Assign and explain a relative weighting for each of the five criteria. Explain why you chose to weight them like you did? (4 marks)
3. d) Assign a ranking to each of the two options (insource or outsource) for each of the 5 criteria, explaining the reasoning for each of the rankings from your research. (4 marks)Then, utilize the weighted matrix model to evaluate the two choices. (4 marks)

2) State your final recommendation (4 marks)

Should Concol continue on as is or outsource its Customer Services?  Be sure to justify your answer based on your numeric and researched findings in 1) above.  (4 marks)

3) Benchmarking the Support Desk (8 marks)

Regardless of the outcome from your analysis, management is looking for ways to benchmark or evaluate their Support Desk.  Your manager wants to know how we are going to specifically measure performance of the online assistance whether we continue to insource or outsource it.

You must provide four specific measurements (preferably quantifiable) for different metrics to measure the performance of your Support Desk.  Your measures must contain reasoning on why these are important, how each measure could be evaluated and how the measurement is to be done.   You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it. (8 marks – 2 marks for each performance measure)

Additional Instructions:First off, you need to understand the industry.  Using Conestoga College LRC databases, research the industry and identify what performance criteria or dimensions, other than costs, Concol should be considering?  Each person in the group must provide at least one different article. Other student papers from any source are not considered articles. We don’t need copies of the articles but ensure they are fully identified on the reference page. 

**Research Note- Concol Customer Services is NOT a real company, so please do not try to find information on it as it does not exist.

Remember to use in-text citations or references to the various articles in the text as it builds credibility.
There are6 marks for research references and in-text citations. For instance, from the January 2015 edition of the Inbound Logistics Magazine, we found…

This case is dueat the beginning of the last class,Week # 12.  All late assignments will receive a zero grade.

Additional Marks for: (21 marks)

1. a) Formatting (3 marks)

Utilize what you’ve learned in Communications and Computer classes to lend a professional appearance to the report. See the Marking Guide for specific requirements. (3 marks)

1. b) Team Contract, Progress Report and Log Book (8 marks)

The Team Contract must be typed, completed, signed and submitted to the instructor at the start of class one week after the project is presented in class – due last class, Week # 9. All members of the team must have signed the contract.  If the contract is late or incomplete, this section of the project will be graded as a zero.  Even if zero, it must be completed to the satisfaction of the instructor before the assignment will be accepted for marking.

If for any reason, the submitted team contract is different from what you thought was agreed to, within 24 hours of submission, please notify all members of the team and the instructor via email and arrange to have a corrected copy resubmitted with everyone signing it.

The Progress Report is to include the log book to date and a copy of your team’s Weighted Matrix from section 1) above. This must be completed and submitted to the instructor at the start of class two weeks after the contract is due – last class of Week # 11. All members of the team must have initialed the log book.  If the Progress Report is late or incomplete, this section of the project will be graded as a zero.  Even if zero, it must be completed to the satisfaction of the instructor before the assignment will be accepted for marking.

The final Log Book is to be attached to the assignment.

Hopefully, everything will go smoothly but if someone is not performing as laid out in the contract, please utilize the Progressive Conflict Resolution Method. If not followed, major mark deviations (>20% point) on the Peer Evaluation will not be accepted.

1. c) Peer Evaluation Form (4 marks)

OnePeer Evaluation form must be completed and signed by all members of the team and attached to the final report. If a completed Peer Evaluation sheet is not handed in, the entire paper will be graded as zero.  If a paper is handed in without everyone signing the Peer Evaluation sheet, the Peer Evaluation portion will be graded as zero.

All group members will receive the same mark unless the peer evaluation is not equally split up.  In this case the mark will be prorated.  For example, if there are 4 group members each should contribute 25% * 4 = 100%.

• If the peer evaluation indicates 22% for a group member and the other three in the group received 26 % – total = 100 % – this student would receive a mark of 22/26 or 85 % of the project mark. All other members would receive the grade of the report.
• Students that contribute more than 25% (assuming 4 members), will receive a maximum of the grade of the report. Taking extra responsibility for the report will not be rewarded.
• If there is a major discrepancy, or difference in the marks (>10%) you should have followed the progressive disciplinary actions outlined in the Team Contract file and had to move beyond step one. Please recognize this is a mechanism for the students if they feel a group member is not pulling their weight or exerting too much influence and control.

1. d) Proofing (spelling, grammar) andsimilarity report – Submit your report to the eConestoga Group Project Drop Box so it can be automatically checked for plagiarism – at least 12 hrs. before the due date. There can be up to marks taken off for spelling and grammar. Copying from another assignment or references could result in a zero for the paper and/or an Academic Offense.

1. e) Research done, Reference Page Created, Documenting Sources and in-text citations using APA Format (6 marks)

• Documenting Sources – LRC – APA Reference Guides

Some Tips

• Before you even start, discuss what everyone has in strengths then use them.  Maybe someone has experience in a related field.   Or, maybe someone acknowledges they are a poor writer but is really good at researching and pulling together ideas.  Maybe someone else is good at producing charts.
• Splitting up work (i.e. each one does a different question) is a poor way to do it as the questions are integrated and interdependent.  The project becomes a “patchwork project” and it will show.
• Utilize the collaboration techniques learned in Computing and pass around for editing ideas and comments.
• Utilize file space that is available to everyone like eConestoga, DropBox, Googledocs or Microsoft Onedrive.
• Set a schedule to start early and finish early.
• Do NOT wait until the morning it’s due to complete and finish the Peer Evaluation sheet.
• Document process steps.  For instance, set an agenda for each meeting and send out ahead.  Take attendance, and write down all action items, when they are to be completed, and who is responsible for each item.  Then, send out to everyone after the meeting so there is no misunderstanding of what is to be done.
• If problems are arising and people are not following the team contract point out the problems as soon as they arise.  Do NOT tell others outside of your group – tell your group!!
• Keep meetings short and productive.  Don’t turn them into work sessions or a social “happening”.

• The whole report is to be typed. The only elements which are not are the signatures on the Peer Evaluation Form and Log Book.