Assignment - Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Logistics and Supply Chain Specialists Australia

Imagine that you are logistics/supply chain specialists. You are employed by the mining company and charged with working out the logistics issues of getting locomotives and wagons to the track in Australia from an overseas supplier.

At this stage the project is in its planning phase. This means that a report should address the logistics management activities that must be taken into account in the planning phase. As it is the planning phase, there are many unknown factors and the project team wants to understand the feasibility of the project from different points of view, including logistics and supply chain.

The logistics specialists is expected to list the main logistics/supply chain activities that must be taken into account and ideally be able to make preliminary recommendations as to how key logistics challenges could be addressed. It would be natural to select one or two challenging key logistics areas and address them in more depth. The preliminary identification of the challenges is up to the logistics specialists. The logistics specialist is free to select the areas to address in more depth as well.

Imagine that the report is for the CEO and managers of other functions involved in the project. The CEO is no logistics specialists, but must be briefed as to what the logistics complexity and challenges are. The CEO does not expect detailed solutions to all problems at this stage, but requires and overview together with a more depth focus one or two important areas that the logistics specialist find important to inform the CEO about. If you have aides to solutions he is more than happy to hear about them too. The CEO requires the information shortly, so he has asked the logistics specialists not to deliver a report of more than 2500 words maximum.

Refer Website for the following companies for more information:-

Waratah Coal - Alpha North Coal Project

Adani proposes rail line from Galilee to Abbot Point

Anglo & Land Lease/Aurizon compete for Abbot Point terminal

Individual Assignment Task
Anglo & Consider the following scenario:

You are a Logistics/Supply Chain specialist providing advice to an international mining company needs toTransport thermal coal on a soon-to-be built 500 km railway between the townships ofAlpha in Central Western Queensland to Abbot Point port in Northeast Queensland.40 standard gauge locomotives (100 tons each) and 600 coal wagons are to betransported from an inland regional setting in Germany (point-of-origin) to AbbotPoint port (final destination).

Assessment Task

Write a 2500 word report explaining the logistics management effort required for the Mining company.

The report must include the following:

A critical analysis of the logistics challenges in transporting the locomotives and wagons from the point-of-origin to the final destination.

The analysis must include inland and sea freight details, port activities and Australian Quarantine and Inspection Services (AQIS) requirements.

It is required that arguments are supported by academic journals, professional literature and practical examples relevant to the logistics activities and the scenario.

Report Structure

Executive Summary
The executive summary is intended for the busy executive needing an overview of the short report. The executive summary is expected to contain summary statements key/important elements of the report such as of the focus of the report, findings, discussion, and conclusion and in some cases recommendations.

Table of contents
The table of contents is used to show the reader where parts of the report can be found. It is up to you to decide on the level of detail in the table of contents.

Introduction

The introduction provides the purpose and scope of the report. In this case the subheadings of Background, Aim and Scope may be used.

Discussion

The body/discussion includes the findings, analysis, discussion in which the material is analyzed and interpreted. This is the core of the report. Use appropriate headings.

Conclusion

The important conclusions justifiable reached as a result of the work should be stated in this section.
Key recommendations should be included in the conclusion.

References

Your report must include in-text referencing and a correctly cited list of references ordered alphabetically by surname of first author, in accordance with the Harvard style of referencing. See the link under Assessment Guidance.

Note that references are usually not sited in the executive summary, introduction and conclusion. These are used in the main body of the text.

Appendices

Here you include material that is important to the report, but to comprehensive to include in the body/discussion of the report.