Reflection On Supply Chain Management Essay And Four Seasons Hotel's Logistics Analysis.

Experience and Benefits of Supply Chain Management Course

Now the module of Supply Chain Management has come to an end, I feel the urge to take this opportunity and reflect inside me about it from start to finish. I want to speak about my experience and discuss the module and what benefits has been brought to me. As such, I like to reveal my own opinion about the Tutor, and what I have learned from her. I would like to reflect on the group process and discuss how it functioned and how the process might be effectively managed in the future, if we have proceeded to higher studies. The weaknesses and strengths points of the group and to what extent the group members have participated during the time of writing the assignment. Furthermore, my reflection will focus on the challenges and constraints the group have met and how they were being resolved.

First, the second term of the third year started with some problems, especially Blackboard and when receiving module booklets late. These things put me at unease. I know technical problems are natural and common, but still I was frustrated and disappointed. Fortunately, and as the saying goes “when a thing starts badly, it usually ends well.”

I have already some physical and mental problems, but during this term, I have suffered hard of hearing and I had severe headache and depression. The thing that makes the matter worst I have been attacked with spells of dizziness. It was difficult for me to continue, but to succumb and give up are out of my character. I have no reverse gear. I nickname myself `Rolling stone` gathers no moss. My health has pulled me backward, but I have succeeded to complete the course.  

Generally, for me the course is very interesting and I have enjoyed it. I have an idea about it when Umair, taught us Operation`s Management in the second year. He did his best to teach the module. The supply chain management module enlightened me to understand the implications of how suppliers and buying organisations interact. It widens my knowledge about the impact of supply chain on legal social, ethical and sourcing, the areas that I like.

It broadens my understanding of using effectively e-technology for management information. It gave me a better idea of how I scan and organise data and share knowledge with my colleagues. In addition, it proves how effectively I perform as a member of a team. I benefited from it in resolving-conflict, evaluating, writing and explaining.  The list is non- exhaustive. I have really enjoyed procurement as strategy and how SCM works at Zara, and Seven Eleven. Sadly, there was not enough time to read more about it. Unfortunately, the module is taught exclusively on line and Iam not good at IT.

Challenges faced while taking the course

I have struggled to keep pace with it. Diane, was so brilliant to put me on the track when I derailed I was so fascinated by her patience, her prompt responses to my emails. She always surprised us with intelligent questions and waiting attentively with a broad smile to hear our answers. Those questions helped me more in understanding the theory of SMC. I have benefited from her feedback and her advice, though I have hard of hearing and lack of concentration.

Concerning the group work I have I faced a problem with it since the first year. Most of the class are from Romania, Brazil, Bulgaria and a few from Russia. I was the only person in the class who speaks Arabic Language. From the start students of those nationalities have clustered together and formed their groups. They speak their language and have no problems meeting together any time and any place to discuss their assignments. I felt like an alien among them. Those groups are homogenous and they did well. I went through a hard experience from the first module up to this one.

When we have received the title for the assignment, again I found myself among individuals with different backgrounds. We have agreed to hold a meeting every Wednesday. Unfortunately, we have not elected a group leader. We chose one of the industries for the assignment. After three following meetings, groups members stopped attending meetings. Everyone came up with an excuse. Life is hard in London, but we should adapt ourselves accordingly,

I found myself taking the initiative and put myself in the place of a leader. I was so worried because the time was running fast and our group was still in the first square. Through the group`s WhatsApp, I started encouraging them to start writing. I sent them information, updating them if they did not attend the lecture. My goal is to do better in this module and graduate as it has been scheduled. I don’t know what was in their minds, but I need them to finish their parts and show it to the tutor to get her feedback, for better marks. In my opinion some of our group members are not active and not fast enough to achieve their tasks. They were prone to delay tasks, but delay is the enemy of progress.

The strengths of the group members are their good ideas and good understanding of the module.  After following them up we have finished the assignment, but I`m not sure about its quality without having feedback. In my experience a leader is important for the group. Serious people are helpful and “free riders” exist in groups. I feel sometimes defenceless working with an ineffectual people.

So what next, I have been provided with very interesting hands-out, Iam Intending to go again through them and enjoy reading them without being under pressure.  As well, Iam thinking of doing further studies in supply chain management and focus on working with external partners.

Experience and Benefits of Supply Chain Management Course

Supply chain management is one of the core activities of customer value that provide customer satisfaction. A better competitive advantage can be gained by effective use of sourcing, production, and logistics operation. In that scenario, I have chosen Four Seasons Hotel and I will discuss all those problems that I faced during the study of supply chain management over this hotel.

Four Seasons Hotel is one of the sumptuousness hotels in the UK and has all kinds of amenities in that hotel (Fourseasons.com 2017). The environmental condition and customer satisfaction level are good and customers can expect a nice and friendly attitude from hotel employees (Lu and Swaminathan 2015). In case of Supply management, purchasing any resources are important and sometimes major change in purchase management has been noticed. In class, the teacher has taken classes over and studied over the Purchase funnel model from where purchasing process can be analyzed.

            On the other hand, I have also learned push and pull theory of supply chain management and understand the market use and market existence of this operation. For enhancement of market and to express their product in all over the market, informative push in strategy is important and I have learned that through my lesson. Flow in operation management and upgrade level of service is the key procedure that can encourage the business market (Mangan and Lalwani 2016).

Supply chain performance can be evaluated by the implementation of the competitive strategy; I learned all possible outputs of this strategy and critically evaluate the importance of this strategy over this hotel. The facility, maintenance, sourcing, pricing, transportation, logistics facilities all these are important factors that provide better designing and planning of that operation process (Brandenburg et al. 2014). I learned the different way of bringing strategic congruence in organization. In this scenario, I have to identify all possible factors that change supply management process and continued that process towards the way of success. In my classroom lesson, I have learned those key matrixes that evaluate my understanding over the subject.

We have formed our group from our academic section. We all are good friends and we have that much understanding to crack any difficult situation. In our group every single people possess separate quality that helps to enrich group production. One of them has leadership quality, other one have quality in technical aspect, another one has operational quality so all these qualities are important for the formation of group.

Challenges faced while taking the course

The strength of the group is diverse; knowledge of people and their mindset to work is significant for meeting the objectives of the lesson. On the other hand, the weakness is considered as knowledge variance, if this is the most important part of the successful flow in group upgradation. In this group building scenario we have decided to work over Four Seasons Hotel and analyses the possible logistic aspects of the hotel so this is the most important part that surfaces enough field for our group. Successful business chain and mode of their operation is the best part that I liked as I understand all the aspects of business progression by applying all those strategies and models.

There are so many barriers are in business and I have to identify those obstacles for business progression and I am quite able to understand those. However, the associated threats and opportunities are not understood by me. I was very tired on that day and I had a bad headache on that day so business threats determination and associated activities for that business sustainability is not clear to me.

            I understand the priorities of e-commerce and in my class and I paid lots of attention to that class and understand all those system technological aspects that enrich supply chain management in business. All those highlighted things are important to me as well and I manage to know the ERP planning as well. In addition, the strategic aspect and associated parts of outsourcing are also in impact my supply management learning. My strength in supply management process is the relationship between buyer and supplier and that relation making is most important part that I understand and tried to implement in different situation.

The partnership in outsourcing process and understanding current strength is the best way to evaluate market and I can evaluate this section. My concern area is my level of performance and conversion rate of my learning is not delivering as per the expectation, which is a major problem. I am aiming for better outcomes and for that reason I have to change my routine and tried hard to mitigate all my personal problems and identify the weak zones and work over there. There are certain obstacles that our group has faced during the work and the most important of this is the timing as people are not getting their free time at the same hour and for this reason communication gap or problem may arise in this section.

So we think that we should make a suitable time for us and do our work on this speculated time, so that everyone thought process should approve.  I can manage my explore view and can ease those obstacles and achieve my objectives. However, process is not quite easy as my learning outcomes are judged on that occasion and the aim of the study has come up with that view. I learn all those aspects of learning and understand all those strategic model and concept and try to habituate with this kind of learning. I can control over my weakness and try to deliver better outcomes through my learning processes. Supply chain is essential for market expansion and Four Season Hotel uses this chain management for their sustainable growth as well.

References

Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J. and Seuring, S., 2014. Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of Operational Research, 233(2), pp.299-312.

Fourseasons.com/hampshire2017 F OUR SEASONS HOTEL HAMPSHIRE , ENGLAND Retrieved from:

Lu, L.X. and Swaminathan, J.M., 2015. Supply chain management.

Mangan, J. and Lalwani, C., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.