A volunteer Humanitarian Assistance operation, Iraq Displaced Relief (IDR), has been operating in Balad, Iraq since the beginning of the year supporting displaced people in Iraq. IDR is a relatively new non-profit organization focused on providing basic medical supplies and healthcare to refugees in war-torn countries. The organization’s venture into Iraq is a new experience in the complexities of running a complicated supply chain, even on a very small scale. You have been asked to help analyze Iraq Displaced Relief’s expenditures to see if there are ways that their supply chain can be simplified so that IDR may better leverage their total spend. Your analysis will form the basis of a report to be shared not only with the leadership of IDR but also with many of their key charitable contributors.

The group’s health and welfare expenses — the day-to-day needs required to live in an austere environment such as Balad — are all funded through charitable donations of cash or commodities from church groups located across the United States. In Balad, Iraq Displaced Relief distributes medical supplies from the donated warehouse and office space. IDR purchases necessary medical supplies and distributes configured packages to a number of local Iraqi agencies. The local agencies deliver the items to villages throughout central Iraq. The majority of funding for the medical supplies comes from a number of charitable trusts from the Midwest United States. Although automation support is severely limited, the group does keep track of its expenditures using a rudimentary excel spreadsheet. IDR’s Director of Purchasing, a volunteer herself, has provided you with an Excel spreadsheet listing the top expenditures for the last month.

Details on the spreadsheet:

The spreadsheet lists the top expenditures for medical supplies for the month of August 2009. The table includes information on the Source of the Material, the Part number that is used to track the item, a short Product description, the number of purchases and the total dollar value spent on that item for the month.

The Stock-keeping unit or Part Number used by IDR is an internally derived number, which represents the Vendor’s Identification number. Although an alpha character was originally designed to signify a specific vendor, the alpha character now is only used to signify the type of material. SKUs starting with A through E represent items generally considered to be medical or surgical in nature — covering everything from bandages to surgical gloves to sutures. SKUs starting with F are generally regarded as pharmaceutical items. SKUs starting with M characterize either durable items (items that can be reused many times) or equipment items.

The alpha characters are not shown in the spreadsheet for your team exercise. For your team assignment, categorize the items listed according to the scheme suggested in the previous bullet point. Add an alpha character to identify a product category as described above. You may have approximately five groups (A through E) representing items generally considered to be medical or surgical in nature. Please note that the “correct” solution has five categories.

Identify pharmaceutical items with an F and durable items or equipment with M. For example, Allegra-D, identified by 00088-1090-47 would be categorized F00088-1090-47, and so on for all of the other items.

The Vendor, Product Nomenclature (although often undecipherable except by IDR volunteers), the numbers of purchases, and the total value of purchases are generally considered to be accurate data.

Spreadsheet Download  Solution Template File. This file should be used for this assignment.

Assignment Deliverable

Deliverable: The deliverable for this assignment is a spreadsheet file with your item classifications, labeled by an alpha character. Please turn in the spreadsheet sorted by SKU number.

Submit Assignment: Please have one team member submit your team’s file into the M3L1 Dropbox: Team Project: Product Classification Exercise by clicking on the “Next” button at the bottom of this content page. Include your team number in the file name.

Introduction

The student will be provided with Case Studies (or similar exercises)  related to the current readings during Units 1 through 8 of the course.  After reading the relevant cases (or similar exercises), as a minimum,  the student will write answers to all questions following the required  case and submit them by 11:59 p.m. Sunday CT. If the case or exercise  does not have following questions, there will typically be requirements  listed in the surrounding reading or exercise. If not, following the  below section on “How to Write a Case Study” will be sufficient  analysis. Directions provided here will indicate when to use the “How to  Write a Case Study” guidelines.

Directions

Using information from the textbook and from outside reading, the  student should respond to each question below as regards the  corresponding case study (don’t forget to number each response) in  approximately 2-3 paragraphs per question. All cited material must  include both internal citations and a complete reference list at the end  of the paper. A cover sheet should minimally indicate the Case Study  number, the name of the course, the student’s name and the date.

How to Write a Case Study

You have to think like a practicing manager if you want to analyze a  case successfully. As part of your analysis, it is necessary, but not  sufficient to answer the following questions in enough depth to show  that you have performed more than a superficial reading of the case’s  content, and subsequently applied relevant theory.

• What is the issue being presented or analyzed in the  case? Focus on the main issue in the case if more than one topic is  presented. Use your judgment to decide on which issue is the one that is  potentially most costly to an organization if left unresolved. There  are more kinds of cost to be considered than economic costs. Do not  neglect them in your analysis.
• Where did the issue take place? Consider this because  you need to take into account cultural and environmental considerations  that may differ from those of the United States, in your analysis.
• When did the issue take place? There may be historic  and environmental considerations different from those of the United  States, which should be taken into account in your analysis.
• Who was affected by the issues? In other words, who are  the stakeholders inside and outside of the organization that need to be  considered when formulating an analysis, and possible response to the  situation?
• Why did the issue occur? This may involve conjecture on  your part. It is all right to speculate; just identify your speculation  as such. In an empirical case, causal factors may be identified as  such.
• How would you, as a manager, apply the insights gained from the case to improve an (your) organization’s operations? Each paragraph should be  organized around a single topic, and transitions should flow logically  from one paragraph to the next.

Cases

Chapter 28, Case Study 28.1 – KeyChemicals’ acquisition of Eco-Pure: recognizing the opportunity and starting the process

Please read the case and:

1. List the issues that you feel those leading the acquisition will  have to attend to if it is to be implemented successfully. Provide  reasoning and evidence for your answers.
2. Provide any changes that you would make to your recommendations as  separate comments after you have read the chapter. If there are no  changes, a brief statement to that effect will suffice.
3. You may want to consider the above factors (“How to write a case  study”) when you are preparing your case answers as an aid to organizing  your information if you find it helpful.

Chapter 28, Case Study – Analysis of an article cited in the chapter.

1. Read: Kotter, J.P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2): 59-67.
2. Do not just summarize the article. If you must provide a summary, limit it to no more than a paragraph.
3. Provide your interpretation or application of how the content in the  article can be used to promote successful change efforts. If the  content could be used to improve conditions in your organization  consider using those examples.

Problem Set 4 will be based on assigned reading materials from weeks 7 and 8. Download the attached file for additional instructions.

Attached Question

Specific Instructions:

-Use only Microsoft Word for this assignment. Please DO NOT use any other format such PDF, etc.

-After you complete the assignment, please give each member opportunity to review the final paper before you submit it. You are jointly responsible for any error made.

Problem Set 4 will be based on assigned reading materials from weeks 7 and 8. Download the attached file for additional instructions.

Attached Question

Specific Instructions:

-Use only Microsoft Word for this assignment. Please DO NOT use any other format such PDF, etc.

-After you complete the assignment, please give each member opportunity to review the final paper before you submit it. You are jointly responsible for any error made.

In Week 11, we discussed the goals of project closure; to complete the project and to improve the performance of future projects. In this assignment, you will individually develop a project closure checklist that is tailored/unique to your group project that you have worked on throughout the course.

Exercise 1 – Project Closure Checklist: Using the concepts discussed this week to develop a short (no more than 1 page in length) project closure checklist that you could use to close out your group project. Once you have completed the checklist answer the following:

Question 1 – Project Retrospectives: Advocates of retrospective methodology claim there are distinguishing characteristics that increase its value over past lessons learned methods. Conduct a search of the University’s academic data bases (see Resources>Library in course navigation bar) to learn more about the project retrospective process. What are the distinguishing characteristics between project lessons learned and project retrospectives? How does each characteristic enhance project closure and review?

In Week 11, we discussed the goals of project closure; to complete the project and to improve the performance of future projects. In this assignment, you will individually develop a project closure checklist that is tailored/unique to your group project that you have worked on throughout the course.

Exercise 1 – Project Closure Checklist: Using the concepts discussed this week to develop a short (no more than 1 page in length) project closure checklist that you could use to close out your group project. Once you have completed the checklist answer the following:

Question 1 – Project Retrospectives: Advocates of retrospective methodology claim there are distinguishing characteristics that increase its value over past lessons learned methods. Conduct a search of the University’s academic data bases (see Resources>Library in course navigation bar) to learn more about the project retrospective process. What are the distinguishing characteristics between project lessons learned and project retrospectives? How does each characteristic enhance project closure and review?