PROJECT PROPOSAL COVER SHEET

(to be completed by the student)

AIB student ID
number:
Student name:
Teaching
Centre/Adelaide/DL:
Course/Specialisation:

A12084
Adasa Edwards
SHEL
MBA Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Subject related to the

Project Proposal:

Strategic Supply Chain Management

(ie which subject from the MBA

course
is are
the doing
Projecta Proposal
NB:
If you
specialised MBA the Subject most related to the Project Proposal MUST be
related to the area of specialisation in order to receive the specialised degree

Title of the Project

Proposal:

Investigation into Inventory Management impact on Supply Chain Management

Word count:

1932
DECLARATION

By submitting or causing this document to be submitted, you, the abovenamed student,

confirm that:
1. you understand the consequences of plagiarism and you confirm that you have not
plagiarised any other persons work in this Project Proposal and except where
appropriately acknowledged, this Project Proposal is your own work, has been expressed in
your own words, and has not previously been submitted by anyone else;
2. you have obtained consents from the organisation(s) to be studied and will retain
consent forms from the organisation and from all persons interviewed or surveyed in the
research, and further you are aware that you must attach copies of all consent forms to
your Final Project.

CHECKLIST

Please complete the following checklist before submitting this Project Proposal:

Have you completed all sections of this Project Proposal Cover Sheet?

Have you adhered to the guidelines relating to word limit?

Where the research project is based on an organisation, have you obtained the
written consent of the authorised person in that organisation and attached the
letter of consent to the Project Proposal?

Is your document in Microsoft Word format? AIB will not accept any other formats.

Is your document saved as your full name and the name of the subject? For
example, the document is saved in the format Jane Citizen Project Proposal.

Are you emailing this completed Project Proposal Cover Sheet with your Project
Proposal (all in the same document) to your Teaching Centre (or to AIB directly if
you are an Adelaide based or DL student)?

Does your email subject line state (1) your full name (2) your AIB Student ID No. 3)
Project Proposal?

Will you retain confirmation of the time that you are emailing your Project Proposal?
This Project Proposal Cover Sheet and your Project Proposal must be received by
your Teaching Centre/AIB before the deadline.

Have you ensured that if your course is in an area of specialisation (eg MBA
(Finance)) that the subject matter of Project Proposal is in that area of
specialisation (eg in Finance)? You must ensure this happens if you wish to obtain a
degree in the specialised area.

PROJECT PROPOSAL FEEDBACK FORM

(to be completed by the AIB assessor)

AIB student ID
number:
Student name:
Course/Specialisat
ion:
Introduction
Background information provided
Issue or problem identified
Focus for the study
Research purpose stated
Research questions identified
Significance identified
Project is feasible topic &
research qns not too big, too small
or too hot
Project related literature
summary
Connection to an aspect of MBA
studies
Alignment with MBA specialisation
(NB: not required for MBA generic)
Literature cited
Research methodology
Research method explained and
justified
Secondary data
Primary data
Data collection methods
explained
Research approvals obtained
Schedule for completion
Research schedule or Gantt chart
Style Guide
Margins, line spacing and fonts
Dates and numbers
Harvard referencing
Sourcing and quotations
Labelling of figures, diagrams,
tables
List of references
English
Spelling
Grammar
Structure and flow
Title is on the first page
Table of Contents
Logical structure

Connections between sections

Easy to read

Outcome:
Approved
Not Approved

Comments

Contents
Title Page:........................................................................................................ 6
Introduction...................................................................................................... 7
2. Focus of the Study........................................................................................ 9
3. Project Related Literature Summary...........................................................11
5. Schedule for Completion Tasks...................................................................15
References..................................................................................................... 16
Appendix. 1.................................................................................................... 17

5 | Page

Title Page:
Investigation into Inventory Management Practices at Kennscott Limited

1.1 Introduction
Background:
Adasa Edwards
Kennscott Limited is a small customer driven company managed by a cadre of highly skilled
technical workers within the catering sector. They provide catering and ship chandelling services
for many companies within the energy sector of Trinidad and Tobago. A relatively new player in
our countrys thriving energy sector, KENNSCOTT Ltd became fully operational in June 2008,
and has already made its mark as a dependable, ethical, efficient and professional business
enterprise partner to several leading energy companies, both locally and internationally.
Project Research Problem
Strategically in a just-in time manufacturing environment, inventory is considered waste.
However, in environments where and organization suffers from poor cash flow or lack strong
control over (1) electronic information transfer among departments and all significant suppliers,
(2) lead times, and (3) quality of materials received, inventory plays important roles.
Predictability: To engage in capacity planning and production scheduling, you need to control
how much raw material and how many parts and subassemblies you process at a given time.
Inventory buffers what you need from what you process. Fluctuations in demand: A supply of
inventory on hand is protection. You dont always know how much you are likely to need at any
given
Fluctuations in demand: A supply of inventory on hand is protection. You dont always know
how much you are likely to need at any given time, but you still need to satisfy customer or
production demand on time. If you can see how customers are acting in the supply chain,
surprises in fluctuations in demand are held to a minimum.
Unreliability of supply: Inventory protects you from unreliable suppliers or when an item is
scarce and a steady supply is difficult to ensure. Whenever possible, unreliable suppliers should
7

be rehabilitated through discussions or replaced. Rehabilitation can be accomplished through

master purchase orders with timed product releases, price or term penalties for non-performance,
better verbal and electronic communications between the parties, and so on. This will lower your
on-hand inventory needs.
Price protection: Buying quantities of inventory at appropriate times helps avoid the impact of
cost inflation. Note that contracting to assure a price does not require actually taking delivery at
the time of purchase. Many suppliers prefer to deliver periodically rather than to ship an entire
years supply of a particular stock keeping unit (SKU) at one time.
Quantity discounts: Often bulk discounts are available if you buy in large rather than in small
quantities. Lower ordering costs: If you buy a larger quantity of an item less frequently, the
ordering costs are less than buying smaller quantities over and over again. (The costs of holding
the item for a longer period of time, however, will be greater.
MULLER, Max. Essentials of Inventory Management (Kindle Locations 266-268). AMACOM.
Kindle Edition.
Many organizations have become cognizant to establishing supply chain management as an
essential function and intrinsically Inventory Management in todays business world.
Optimization and smart management of inventory will continue to play a very strategic role for
firms to survive the current economic downturn. More importantly, when recovery in markets
does return, strategic inventory management will play an ever more crucial role, as supply chains
determine which inventory investments are the smartest. (Ferrai, 2009)
With this being stated, it is essential that Private Companies, Limited Liabilities and multinational organization gain insight on proper Inventory Management concepts and systems. The
concept of Supply Chain Management simply encapsulated, states the active management of
supply chain activities to maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive
advantage.
At Kennscott Limited Inventory management is a key factor to successfully gaining competitive
advantage within the catering industry regional, it ideally impacts on the supply chains day to
day operations,
8

With this being stated Management of logistics chains plays a key role in the process of demand
forecasting. The whole supply chain is subject to flow of both materials and information.
Contemporary concept of supply chain management strives for cooperation in order to reduce
inventory throughout the chain, whereas planning is carried out using the principle of continuity,
dividing all the information required in order to control the processes of flow presents one of the
models of inventory management where the components of the chain work independently and
information is transferred only at the level of adjacent links.

(Kot S., 2011)

Currently kennscott Limited is trading at a regional level and it has become essential that proper
inventory management be emphasize so that supplies can ultimately reach off-shore, on-shore
and business functions on-time. The company currently issues stock based on phone, fax and
email request from offshore platforms and upcoming functional requirements, therefore they
balance what stock they have currently and implements purchase order request with their
suppliers for products to be delivered just-in time based on their requirements.Although this
infrustructure can be seen as functional due to the size of the organisation and current inventory
staff being utilized a disadvantage is that of coordination, managing a just-in-time inventory system
is that it requires significant coordination between retailers and suppliers in the distribution channel.
(Kokemuller, 2015)

Also this company is not able analyse stock movement , trends or even have the ability to
properly manage stock control due to the expansion of growh into regional markets, therefore
9

profitability is being lost through an inefficient inventory management system due to the fact that
supplies is not able to reach the end user which is the offshore locations vessels and reseller
stations on time . These constant stock-outs makes it difficult to maintain engross business
relationships when clients at various canteen locations and offshore platforms dont received
their request, especially those that are seasonal and highly awaited on rig platforms.
The large inventory being held with non-routine stock is becoming a burden, Kennscott Limited
suffers from holding these stock without being able to properly managed new inflow due to
storage utilization. Therefore cash flow of the organisation is being affected because just-in time
stock requires new suppliers of products that may not allow credit purchases, this would
adversely affected supplier relationship due to orders being decreased because products are now
being outsourced from variable suppliers, inventory cost will also increase incrementally.

10

2. Focus of the Study

Purpose of Study
1.0 Based on the problems previously identified this research will attempt
1. Understand the nature of the current Inventory System
2. Evaluate the currently challenges experienced by Kennscott Limited
3. Evaluate the impact of inventory management challenges relative to the effect on the
supply chain.
4. Determine the most appropriate inventory management system, based on the
requirements of the company with through cost benefit analysis deing the focal point..

2.1 Research Questions

In order to achieve the objectives of this research

1. How to improve inventory management cost effectively?

2. Challenges currently experienced by this company.
3. How can new inventory management solutions be implemented to curb inefficient stock
inflow and outflow?
4. Once inventory system is improved how would the supply chain benefit.
5. How can IT developmental solutions, approaches and tools be effectively utilized to manage
and improve their supply chain activities?
6. How would the emerging strategy and solution to this company, supply chain management be
planed and implement once the inventory management system is inplaced.
Determine the most appropriate inventory management system based on what kennscott needs to
manage.
The impact on inventory management systems challenges
11

3.0 Significance of the Project

The essential aspect of this project is too providing insight on new innovative solution to
managing inventory within this company. This project would resource both practical and
theorectical approach to embark on benefits that can be utilized by kennscott Limited to optimize
their inventory system, the study will look into the legacy information to gain primary and
secondary data sources to encapsulate a solution that can be cost effective to implement
.
Key Areas of Investigation:
The entire operation of the Kennscott limited inclusive of Operations Locally and Regionally
The current Procurement and Supply Chain Management strategy utilized by Kennscott Limited
Supply Chain Management Function in all Offices
Effects of Implementation of an Enterprise Supply Chain Solution ERP Solution

Kennscott Limited will benefit from understanding the importance of Inventory Management as
a strategic business function within their organisation; they will also gain and understanding of
the mechanisms and tools that are used to facilitate management of their supply chain. A strategy
will be developed based on implementing an Information technology solution that will facilitate
communication and visibility throughout their enterprise thereby allowing them to gain
competitive advantage.
12

3. Project Related Literature Summary

This project will cover supply chain and information technology development; it will seek to
review knowledge gain from specialization module of Supply Chain Management.
Modules Include ;
Strategic Operations
Logistics Management
Major Project
Published articles of related supply chain management cases therefore such cases will be review
while new enterprise solutions technologies will be investigated. Further data will be reviewed
from

Anderson, David L.; Frank Britt, Donavon Favre, "The 7 principles of Supply Chain
Management. (FUNDAMENTALS)." Supply Chain Management Review. Peerless
Media. 2007.

"Enterprise Resources Planning, Technology", Harvard Business School, Escalle, cedric

X., Mark Cotteleer and Robert D. Austin. 1999.

Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies, Second Edition

David Frederick Ross, APICS National, Chicago, Illinois, USA

"Version Models for Software Configuration Management," ACM Computing Surveys,

vol. 30, R.Conradi and B. Westfechtel no. 2, 1998.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT. 2013. INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT. [ONLINE] Available

13

at: http://prala.hubpages.com/hub/INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY-AD-SUPPLY-CHAINMANAGEMENT.

14

RFID Applications and Solutions: Inventory Control. 2015. RFID Applications and
Solutions: Inventory Control. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.activewaveinc.com/applications_inventory_control.php. [Accessed 04
July 2015]. 4. Planned Methodology

In order to fully grasp the significance of supply chain solutions this research will be based on a
combination of both primary and secondary data and a range of quantitative and qualitative
analysis. This analysis would be done through interviews, document research and literature
review, this approach is known as triangulation (Bell 1999), this method will ensure accuracy in
research findings. The analysis would be done through a case study approach to evaluate this
organisation relative to other organisation of similar stature within the same industry.
1.1 Interviews, Observation and documents research.
The first method that will be instituted is to review all relevant literature and theoretical findings
of Information Technological developments within supply chain management, this approach will
be done through a case research method, emphasis will be placed on retrieval of information on
companies that were initiating new techniques and solutions for Supply Chain Management.
This will be followed by a review of current supply chain management practices, through of
processes from initial request for quotation to delivery of final product, it is therefore essential to
gain secondary data as it provides a legacy framework of an encapsulation of the Operations.
This data will be retrieved through purchase orders, client files, request for quotation, invoices
stock request and tendering bids, all of these forms will provide an accurate picture of the
requirements for an information technological supply chain management solution.
To gain insight for requirements for development it is essential that the managing director and
key stakeholders of this proposed solution be included in discussions for potential improvement
for the future, therefore interviews will be done to gain primary data, a structured format will
be implemented to include open and closed questions, closed question will be to resourced the
factual associations of the company will the open-ended question will allow the interviewer to
gain notions of the companys direction by gaining insightful knowledge into opinions of key
personnel within the organisation.

15

After this encapsulation of various research methods are instituted, evaluation of improvement
initiatives will be implemented through theoretical evaluations to the case of Kennscott Limited
impact of Information Technology as it relates to Supply Chain Management. Therefore it is
essential that previous studies as it relates to implementation of ERP (Enterprise resource
planning solutions be resourced and analyses as to seek solutions relative to this case.
The managing director, Logistics Manager, Offshore Co-ordinators and Warehouse staff would
be interviewed to capture this data.
2.0 Data Collection & Analysis
Questionnaires and personal interviews by strategic personnel within the organisation would be
resourced to grasp what are the actual requirements of what they are attempting to retrieve. This
ten would be counter balance with how other organisations are achieve competitive advantage
through implementation of such supply chain mechanisms.
These data collection method would be the most relevant as it would give both factual data as to
the companys efficiency as it relates to the sector and what is required to achieve completive
advantage, and the case study approach collaborated with observation which would be done on
load out days, these days is whereby inflow and outflow of goods is done through the
companies supply chain would be a good criteria for primary data collection, It would also give a
clear snapshot as to issues and how the research can find solutions to alleviate them while
investigating.
Questionnaires interviewees:

Managing Director
Logistics & Procurement Manager
Warehouse Staff

Questions to be asked.
1. How do you managed your supply chain activities?
16

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Do you think your company manages the process of warehousing and logistics properly?
Is Supply Chain a strategic business unit within your company?
Does your company have a clear logistics and supply chain plan for the future?
How many standalone computer does your organisation own?
How many servers does your company utilize?
What technology do your company utilize for mass storage and backups?
What type of system are currently used for management of logistics and supply chain

activities?
9. How do you benefit from using these systems?
10. At what level your company is facing issues with logistics duties?
11. How is fleet transportation managed by your company?
12. How much transportation vehicles relative to inventory management do your company
own?
13. How important is Information Technology development relevant to your business
activities?
14. Is this company doing any business internationally?
15. How many clients this company provides services to?
16. How many are international clients?
17. How many are local clients?
18. Do products and services reach on a timely manner?
19. Do you believe that new innovative mechanisms can effectively manage inventory and
supply chain activities within your company?
On completion of all questionnaires, each interviewee would signed the research consent
form and the research would then be utilized for information based on the data
encapsulated within the questionnaire. The questionnaires would then be included within
the final project within the appendix.

17

5. Schedule for Completion Tasks

Task 1. Project Proposal
Task 2. Project Literature Research
Task 3. Data Collection
Task 4. Final Draft
Task 5. Review
Task 6. Final Submission
Please see appendix .1

18

References
1. Anderson, David L.; Frank Britt,; Donavon Favre,. "The 7 principles of Supply Chain
Management.(FUNDAMENTALS)." Supply Chain Management Review. Peerless
Media. 2007.
2. "Enterprise Resources Planning, Technology", Harvard Business School, Escalle, cedric
X., Mark Cotteleer and Robert D. Austin. 1999.

3. Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies, Second Edition

David Frederick Ross, APICS National, Chicago, Illinois, USA
4. "Version Models for Software Configuration Management," ACM Computing Surveys,
vol. 30, R.Conradi and B. Westfechtel no. 2, 1998.
5. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT.
2013.INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT.
[ONLINE] Available at: http://prala.hubpages.com/hub/INFORMATIONTECHNOLOGY-AD-SUPPLY-CHAIN-MANAGEMENT.
6. Hugos, M.H, 2011. Essentials of Supply Chain Management, Third Edition. 3rd ed.
Chicago, United States of America: John Wiley & Sons.
7. Jones,Wahba,Heijden, S, K Ph.D, BPh.D, , 2008. How to Write Your MBA Thesis: A
Comprehensive Guide for All Master's Students Required to Write a Research-based
Thesis or Dissertation (Maastricht ... in Intercultural and Global Management). 1st ed.
United Kingdom: Meyer Meyer.
8.

19

Appendix. 1

20

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