ASSESSEMENT TITLE: CUSTOMER BENEFITS PACKAGES AND VALUE CHAINS   

TYPE OF ASSESSEMENT: - CASE STUDY

Assignment task

 This assessment must be written using a REPORT STYLE.

Identify two organisations in an industry of your choice. These organisations must have clearly DIFFERENT VALUE CHAIN DESIGN AND STRUCTURES. It is recommended that one should be based around a purely PHYSICAL product or products (A GOOD) and the other an INTANGIBLE PRODUCT OR PRODUCTS (a SERVICE).

QUESTION 1: Describe, compare and contrast a primary customer benefits package from each firm.

QUESTION 2: From both the customer's and management's viewpoints, compare and contrast the value chain design and structure for the two organisations. You should include discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of each value chain design.

Analyse the two different organisations relative to how they define their operations strategy in different ways. In doing so you should define each firm's strategic vision, strategy, and competitive priorities. You should also clearly identify what operations management have to be good at to make the organisaton a success?

Format of Report-

-Title Page

-Acknowledgments

The names of people and organisations that contributed in any way to your research and analysis should be mentioned here. This would ordinarily not include participants who were part of your research.

-Table of contents

This lists everything contained in the report excluding the title page and the table of contents page itself. Page numbers must be included for every section listed. Short research reports of less than six pages (that is about 2000 words) would usually not include a table of contents. However, you should check with your lecturer before submitting your final draft for assessment.

-List of illustrations

Lists of illustrations, diagrams or tables of figures are provided after the Table of Contents on a separate page with the heading 'List of Tables' or 'List of Figures' or similar.

-Executive summary

A summary of the scope and purpose of your report, your methodology, main findings or results and the significance of these. The executive summary is written last after you have finalised your m

Body of the report-

-Introduction

This sets the context for the report. State what you plan to do in this report and why you have done this research (aim/purpose/your research question(s), important background information, key terms, and scope of the report.

-Findings

This is the bulk of the report. It is where the relevant data is analysed, and the main findings of the report are examined. The layout of the findings should be logically organised with each section and sub-section clearly labelled. Competing arguments, interpretations and solutions should be discussed and their relative merits evaluated.

-Analysis

This section may not always be necessary. But include this if you want to draw aspects of your findings together and present an explicit argument which will provide a firm basis for the conclusions and recommendations.

-Conclusion

This section is quite brief and covers the significance of the findings and implications for future research or practice. It might also mention alternative research tools or research questions to follow on from this topic.

-Recommendations

These are included if your research was investigative and your aim to make recommendations. These are based on the findings and analyses. Recommendations can be numbered and placed in priority order. With longer reports, in addition to providing a separate list of recommendations, some writers also prefer to place their recommendations at the end of the relevant sections within the body of the report.

-Supporting Materials

-Appendices

Include materials which support your research such as raw data, details of surveys or questionnaires.

-Reference List

This should include books, journal articles or other texts that you have referred to in your report. Check the referencing style required by your lecturer.

1800 words

10 references.