OPER 1160 – Introduction to Supply Chain and Operations Management
Industry Research Project
Objectives
To research and gain a better understanding of the supply chain and operations management industry, students will have the opportunity to learn more about potential careers in and how companies use Supply Chain and Operations Management. The research scope will be limited to Canadian career profiles and Canadian companies as well as international companies with Canadian operations. This project will introduce you to supply chain-related careers and the knowledge gained will help you discuss the functional areas of a business with more credibility and understanding. This individual assignment will be worth a total of 10% of your final grade in this course.
Part 1 – Career Research
Your instructor has pre-assigned you with 1 (one) supply chain career to research. You cannot request or choose to do a different selection other than what was assigned. For the assigned supply chain career, you are required to do the following tasks:
1 – Student must then go online and research current Canadian job postings for the assigned career. Students are encouraged to research Canadian job boards and career sites and note that the career search does not have to be limited to Ontario. Anywhere in Canada is acceptable. Make sure to save the link to the job posting.
2 – For the selected job posting, students are asked to do the following:
Describe a minimum of 8 job responsibilities and/or requirements of the career selected. Can be in point form.
Identify and explain 2 job responsibilities from above that you would find very interesting.
Identify and explain 2 job responsibilities from above that you would find not attractive.
3 – Identify the job’s potential salary taken from at least 3 sources. Note that 1 of these sources can be salary information that the student finds in the original posting (if available). Present them in a table and ensure you have included references in the writeup.
Figure 1 shows a possible salary comparison table.
Glassdoor Website
$45,000
Ontario Job Futures Website
$48,480
Payscale
$62,000
Figure 1: Comparative Salaries for a Retail Buyer Position (NOC: 6222)
Sources: Glassdoor.ca (2017), Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education & Skills Development (2017) and Payscale (2017)
Explain possible reasons for the similarities and/or differences in the salaries from these three sources?
Is this a job that you would be interested in pursuing? Why or why not?
Would you accept this salary if the job was offered to you? Why or why not?
Part 2 – Company & Operations Management Decisions Research
Students must choose 1 (one) Canadian company, or international company with Canadian operations. The student MUST receive approval from Instructor before proceeding with the selected company. For the selected company students are asked to do the following tasks:
1 – Research the chosen company using sources such as company websites, business articles, etc. For the selected company the student must explain how the company uses any 3 of the 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management (found in Table. 1.2 of the text). The explanation for EACH of the 3 selected critical decisions must include a referenced example from your research.
Your instructor wants to learn something unique about your chosen company for each of the 3 decisions researched. This can be summarized and explained in 2-3 sentences for each decision.
2 – Student must research and provide the Mission Statement for selected company.
3 – Student must research and explain 1 (one) strategy that the company uses to accomplish their mission statement. Please include a referenced example.
Part 3 – Report Format & Submission Requirements
Once students have completed all of the tasks outlined in Part 1 and 2, they are required to submit a final report with their research findings. The body of the report should be 5 to 6 pages in length. This does NOT include the title page or list of references. Please also note the following formatting requirements:
Please use Calibri font size 12 for the body of the report with 1 or 1.15 line spacing—not double-spaced please.
Attach a title page that includes the course name and section; your name and number.
Ensure all pages are numbered and in the footer on each page, include your name as well
Prepare a list of references for ALL sources utilized to prepare the paper. The list will go at the end of your paper and is NOT included in your page count. NO WIKIPEDIA REFERENCES PLEASE!
Spelling and grammar are important, and will be assessed
* The Originality Checker feature will be turned on in the Assignment box and it is up to you to ensure that you used your own words but also include intext citations where appropriate to give authors credit for the gathered information. Reports showing ANY percentage of non-original material will be checked by your instructor.
Refer to the Marking Guide for more details.
Research Hints
Career Responsibilities. The purpose is to get a good understanding of the career responsibilities. Use the career National Occupation Code link in Part 1 or a job posting as a source of information.
In addition to that link, the following links may also offer some information on job responsibilities:
Ontario Labour Market Information
Explore Careers by Occupation – Job Bank
Salary expectations. What would be the salary range you would expect to earn in this position? It may be given but most job advertisements do not tell you this. We want you to find out an approximate salary range for this type of job from other similar job ads, and other industry, educational and government sites and sources. Use at least 3 sources for comparison. If a salary is quoted, is it competitive? What factors might make the sources different?
There are several websites/sources that have salary information. Here’s just a sampling of other ones you could use in addition to those in the Week # 1module: (these should be free?)
Service Canada
http://www.salaryexpert.com/,
http://www.payscale.com ;
Salary Wizard Canada
http://www.supplychaincanada.org/en/
Be careful if you are researching on the Internet that you are referencing Canadian websites. The job can be from anywhere in Canada but due to vast differences in pay structures, benefits, and provincial vs. state labour laws and practices, etc. we want you to only compare using Canadian sources.
Operations Management Decisions, Mission & Strategies
Research the website for your chosen company. Great places to start looking there could be under links such as “About Us”, “Sustainability”, “Corporate Governance” etc. Or, go to the LRC link on the Conestoga College homepage or on the eConestoga homepage for this course and put in your company name to find numerous database references.
You must do your own industry research. Referencing or using portions of other student papers, no matter what their source, does not constitute a proper research procedure for this report and may be considered plagiarism.
OPER1160 Industry Research Project, Page 2