Assignment

1. What is logistics and what does someone in logistics do?

2. Is Electronic Data transfer critical to Logistics in today's business environment?

3. What type of Methodology (i.e., Comparing Unit Productivity within the Same Organization; Relative Service; "Best Practices") is used for Benchmarking Logistics Systems performance within an organization with which you are familiar? Would you recommend alternative measures by which to assess such performance? If so, please briefly describe these measures.

4. How would you characterize Single-sourcing strategies? What are some advantages and risks associated with the implementation of these endeavors with respect to Global Logistics, post-terror attacks on 11 September 2001?

5. Please assess the role of Third-party Logistics Service Providers. How has the Electronic (i.e., Internet) environment enhanced Third-Party Logistics Services, and in particular, "Virtual" Logistics Providers, with respect to operational efficiency?

6. Given you the opportunity to integrate past course work in exploring the major challenges and technological transformations associated with modern logistics. Based on this course and previous courses, speculate on what you anticipate to be the major trends in logistics over the next 10 years.

7. The material in this module tells us that many companies place disproportionate emphasis on the financial perspective at the expense of the other three perspectives. Give an example of an organization which you are familiar from either previous coursework, the news, or personal experience where this has been the case. What were the results of this focus on the financial perspective on customers and other stakeholders? Be as specific as you can and give concrete examples.

8. Can you think of any organizations that do not have relevant "customers" to take into consideration? If there are such, how are they different from other organizations where all parts of the BSC operate equally?

9. Organizations are complex systems with multiple stakeholders. Sometimes the interests of various stakeholders can conflict. For your initial post to this discussion, please give an example of a business process where the interests of two (or more) stakeholders are in opposition. For your second posting, choose an example of such a conflict posted by another student, and suggest a way that the business process can be changed so that the interests of the stakeholders can be brought into sync

10. The home page of this module identifies several measures of the learning and growth perspective, such as

- Real-time availability of accurate customer and internal process information to front-line employees

- Ability to launch new products

- Ability to create more value for customers

- Ability to penetrate new markets

- Alignment of employee incentives with overall organizational success factors

- Rates of improvement in critical customer-based and internal processes

Consideration of these measures reveals that it can be difficult to quantify these factors. For your first posting in this TD, identify one specific example of a measure of learning and growth measure that you feel could be critical to an organization, but difficult to measure. For your second posting, choose another student's measure and propose a metric that could be used to quantify it.

11. In your opinion, what are the most difficult aspects of simultaneously balancing the four perspectives in the balanced scorecard? Be specific and give examples from your case analyses and/or SLP.

12. Given the readings and assignments in this course and the BSBA program, identify and briefly discuss two concepts that you believe are essential to be successful in business administration.