Module 4 Assignment: Case Study Essay. In this assignment, you will select ONE of the following case studies and prepare an essay that factually and succinctly describes the case. Use a reflective learning theory as a framework in your analysis. Demonstrating your understanding of course material through direct references to the course frameworks is very important. Please offer your own views on the topic, not just a rehash of what someone else has written. There are no right or wrong answers to this assignment. However, thoughtfulness and thoroughness do count.
Your grade will be heavily influenced by your ability to incorporate reference to your selected reflective learning theory and course reading material throughout your essay.
Choice 1: Angela Murphy
Imagine yourself in Angela’s position. What are the various frameworks, models, or “schools of thought” related to how Angela thinks about her situation? How can Angela develop her knowledge to move between different frameworks?
Angela is a purchasing and buying professional working in the auto industry. She has worked for a small parts (nuts and bolts for cars) supplier in the Midwest for about 5 years. She has a basic understanding of spreadsheets and is good at tracking how often individual items sold by her company need to be restocked. One day her manager asks her to study a new model for doing supply chain management, called Kanban. What might Angela do to learn more about this new framework or school of thought in her field?
Further information:
In the late 1940s, Toyota began studying supermarkets with a view to applying store and shelf-stocking techniques to the factory floor, figuring that in a supermarket, customers get what they need, at the needed time, and in the needed amount. Furthermore, the supermarket only stocks what it believes it will sell, and customers only take what they need because future supply is assured. This led Toyota to view a process as a customer of preceding processes, and the preceding processes as a kind of store. The customer process goes to this store to get needed components, and the store restocks. As in supermarkets, originally, signboards were used to guide “shoppers” to specific restocking locations. “Kanban” uses the rate of demand to control the rate of production, passing demand from the end customer up through the chain of customer-store processes. In 1953, Toyota applied this logic in their main plant machine shop. An important determinant of the success of production scheduling based on “pushing” the demand is the quality of the demand forecast that can receive such “push.” Kanban, by contrast, is part of an approach of receiving the “pull” from the demand. Therefore, the supply or production is determined according to the actual demand of the customers. In contexts where supply time is lengthy and demand is difficult to forecast, the best one can do is to respond quickly to observed demand. This is exactly what a kanban system can help with: It is used as a demand signal that immediately propagates through the supply chain. This model is also associated with Walmart restocking procedures each night, and is considered a great shift in practices or advancement in the business community.
Assignment Expectations. Decide which ONE of the two cases you will analyze. Then,
Factually and succinctly describe the case.
Apply one of the theories of reflective learning from our course to the case.
Imagine yourself in the character’s position. Answer the questions in bold from within the case study.
Your Case Study shall be between 2 to 3 pages (excluding cover page and reference page) and shall have the following sections:
Title page (not included in page count)
Introduction
Narrative
Conclusion
Reference page (not included in page count)
Formatting should include: 1″ margins, double spaced, 12 point font
Citation Expectations
Cite the reflective learning theory used in the case study
Use in-text citations for quotes or material not your own
Use your choice of citation style
URLs alone are not acceptable
Once your Case Study is complete, save it and upload your document to this assignment. Please write professionally (spell check, good grammar, etc.)
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