CNMSCI571 – Strategic Supply Chain Management
Individual Assignment 1: The UK Passport Office
Figure 1 – The backlog of passports in temporary storage at a Passport centre, Jun 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/12/emergency-passport-measures-may
Assignment Purpose
This assignment is in a short format of around 800-1000 words and counts for 10% of the module
mark. It is intended to assess several things, as follows:
1. Your understanding of a few key operations management and supply chain management
concepts, covered in your reading and in the first week of term 1, and their application to a
short, real-world case study;
2. Your ability to read, understand, summarise and apply academic concepts from textbooks and
journal papers, which you have been directed to read during week 1;
3. Your ability to write a clear and concise essay, using appropriate standards of English,
structuring the essay appropriately, and summarising, referring to and citing a few academic
sources.
It will be written quickly, marked quickly, and you will receive individual feedback on your work. It is
intended to get you off to a good start in developing the knowledge and skills that you will need to
complete the rest of this module, other modules in the Programme and, indeed, your project and
dissertation.
The specific brief is on the next page.
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© Martin Spring
Assignment Brief
The substance of the assignment is based on the case study of Her Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO),
which you have already worked on, and we have discussed in class (see Figure 1). We have explored
the case study by discussing a number of questions during seminar 1. What I want you to do in this
assignment is to answer a more focused and theoretically-motivated question:
“Use the ‘Four Vs’ framework from Slack et al., Operations Management, the operations
strategy concept of the trade-off in (see Slack et al. (2016) and, optionally, DaSilveira and
Slack (2001)), and the main argument of Fisher (1997), plus any other key ideas you think
are important, to explain why the problems arose at HMPO. Be sure to link the main points
of your argument to the key ideas from these academic sources.”
Although you may want to draw on, and cite, other academic sources and concepts, I am not expecting
you to do extra searching within the literature. My main concern is that you can take the key concepts,
apply them, and write about that link between theory and practice in an appropriate and effective
way.
Presentation
The assignment should be 800-1000 words in length, plus diagrams, tables and references.
Indicate the word-count on the front page.
Please ensure that the document is anonymised, but make sure you include your student i.d.,
at least on the front page.
Please write in minimum 11pt font, at least 1.15 spacing.
Number the pages.
Please use Harvard referencing – information on how to do this is widely available, including
via the CNMSCI571 Moodle page.
Please use diagrams and tables as appropriate. Do not reproduce any diagrams or tables; only
use them if you adapt them and synthesise different elements. All Figures and Tables must
have numbers and titles and be referred to explicitly in the text (i.e. not just ‘appear’). All
sources of diagrams and Tables must be indicated, even if they are adapted.
You are referred to the general guidance in your course Handbook concerning plagiarism. There is
further advice on the Library webpages about this and other aspects of academic writing.
References
Dasilveira, G. and Slack, N. (2001) Exploring the trade-off concept. International Journal of Operations
& Production Management, 21, 7, 949-964.
Fisher, M. (1997) What is the right supply chain for your product? Harvard Business Review, MarchApril, 105-116.
Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. and Johnston, R. (2022) Operations Management, Harlow, Pearson.
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© Martin Spring
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