Supply Chain Systems and Modelling

Requirements:

You are required to research and develop your own case study material for this assignment following the supply chain structure (suppliers, manufacturers, distribution centres and retailers) provided in Figure 1 below. The case study is restricted to any one of the following industries: textile, furniture, fast moving consumer goods or automotive industries.
Where a full case study or parts of the case study are being compiled from published secondary material, you are required to reference this appropriately using the APA6 referencing style. 

A.. Describe the case study you aim to develop. The developed model must incorporate a number of suppliers, one or more manufacturers, a number of distribution centers and a number of retailers. Highlight the critical issues within this case study (for example, high inventory level, low customer service level, high transport cost, inappropriate use of performance measures, and so on).
Identify the key performance measures that will be considered for the analysis (for example, total distance travelled, number of products delivered, delivery on time and in full, customer service, and so on).
Provide reference to the data set to be used in this analysis.

B. Two operational techniques are required to solve some of the issues identified in part A. The selection of the techniques must make use of ARENA discrete event simulation and Excel Solver using linear programming.

Describe the theoretical aspects of the selected operational techniques in the context of your case study. Detail how and why your selected technique is best suited to the identified issue.

Describe the approach required to apply the selected techniques that will potentially provide an improvement to the issues identified.

C. Critically analyse the proposed models and results. Present your conclusions and give recommendations for the future.

D. Reflecting on your experience of doing this assignment, provide a self- evaluation on how preparing for this assignment helped you in your understanding of the supply chain modelling techniques. Please note: your reflection is a personal one, so this part will not be assessed. However, it will be taken to form part of the overall evaluation intended to ascertain your understanding of the contributions of supply chain modelling. This evaluation may be considered for the overall module evaluation and research. There will be no reference to your name if any information provided within this report is used in research.