Retail and service logistics (COURTS industry research report)

For assessment 3, students are expected to do research about  Courts (https://www.courts.com.sg/corporate-information#about-courts/ (Links to an external site.)) and analyse the company's retail service quality. The students should perform comprehensive research on the selected retailer to find out more information about the company’s logistics’ performance in this field.

Important note: The whole report must be about the selected retailer.

Assessment requirements:

You will work on Courts and develop your analysis based on the instruction provided below. 

This assessment tasks allows you to apply the concepts, principles and relevant techniques that are the basis of this course’s educational content. You should refer back to the course content as well as read relevant sources such as textbook, research articles and course notes. You need to collect data/information using multiple appropriate sources and develop an understanding of the nature and structure of the associated retail chain. The industry research report format is provided as a guide, but students should be able to adapt it to suit any academic paper writing situation.

The Assessment Outline:

The report will be evaluated based on the following outline: Please refer to the assessment rubric for more details.

• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (10%):

The executive summary is a stand-alone section, which summarises the background, objectives/aims, issues/problems and recommendations of your report. The executive summary can only be written of course, after you have finalised the report.

• Executive Summary should appear before the Table of Contents.


• You are strongly encouraged to avoid simply paraphrasing and/or repeating the information presented in the report itself.


• TABLE OF CONTENTS (THE MARKS FOR TOC IS PART OF THE REPORT STRUCTURE MARKS. PLEASE SEE BELOW)


• INTRODUCTION (CONTAINING RESEARCH AIM AND SCOPE) (15%):

Description of retail services/products and the company. Here you can discuss the essential points about the company/organisation and the importance of investigating the particular services/product supply chain. The introduction should include the aim and scope of the report.

• ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS (35%):

A comprehensive literature review base on at least 10 (TEN) resources that can be a mixture of academic and/or non-academic sources is required to:

1. Identify the gaps/problems/issues/challenges in the particular retailer and its supply chain;

2. Explain the selected retail supply chain structure; location and layout of the store(s) or retail outlet(s); products/services offered and other areas as you see fit;

3. Outline the core competence of the selected retailer in the competitive market;

4. Show detailed ‘Information Flows’ in the selected retail supply chain;

5. Describe the procurement activities and logistics services;

6. Describe the processes for the transportation/warehousing/distribution of goods and so on.

Also, according to your research and the theories taught in class, address the following issues:

7. Discuss the relationship between the selected retailer’s location strategies and its customers;

8. Consider the gaps/problems/issues/challenges that you have found in the literature and determine if your selected company is facing (or will face) similar issues. In this case, it is required to discuss them. Examples could include: the uncertainty of demand/supply; lack of market research; unreliable consumer behaviour; poor value chain; competitive analysis; etc;

9. Discuss whether the organisation employs omnichannel or multichannel;

10. Discuss the role of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in the selected retailer’s merchandise management;

11. Discuss the current/recommended Coparte social responsibility (CSR) activities in selected retail business towards sustainable development;

12. Discuss and compare the selected retailer’s supply chain, its return and refund policy, its consumers, its suppliers, and its financial performance before and after COVID-19 outbreak;

13. Discuss the consumers’ panic during the current pandemic which resulted in ‘quantity assurance’ more than ‘quality assurance’ practices;

14. Provide recommendations on how best possible solutions can be incorporated into the selected retailer in order to overcome the current and prevent the potential risks/problems/issues.

• CONCLUSION (10%):

The conclusion 'wraps up' by summarising the gaps identified and how you resolved them. Discuss the lessons learnt from this industry research report developed in relation to the concepts learnt from lectures. Suggest any limitations of this research work.

• REFERENCING STYLE (10%) AND CLARITY (5%):
  
  
  
  • Referencing: The assessment should be appropriately referenced (using the Harvard referencing style), including a bibliography. The in-text citation is a must!
  
  
  • Appendices: Under appendix, you can put any tables/diagram/data that will not be included in the word count! All tables/figures must be referred to in the body of the report.
  
  
  • Use any of the Fonts Arial/Calibri/Times New Roman with the size of 11 or 12: The report should be properly formatted and 1.5 lines spaced, with 2.5 cm margins.
  
  
  • Students are required to submit their assessment electronically to Turnitin.
  
  
  
  


• ACADEMIC WRITING AND STRUCTURE (5%):

Updated Table of Contents provided with no errors and proper names for each heading. The document should be extremely neat and professional looking. Instructions for the content should have been followed exactly. The reader of this document should be able to view it as extremely professional. English should be at an excellent level for HD.

• OVERALL TOPICS COVERAGE (10%):

Topics should properly be presented, clear explanation on analysis and outcome is needed. Showing understanding of what was utilised from the case or reference paper and how the analysis was done are required.

Sample Research Paper:

• Horizontal Logistics Collaboration—An International Retail Supply Chain Case Study (Links to an external site.)


• Australian food retail supply chain analysis (Links to an external site.)


• Digital product fitting in retail supply chains: maturity levels and potential outcomes (Links to an external site.)


• A study on investments in the big data-driven supply chain, performance measures and organisational performance in Indian retail 4.0 context (Links to an external site.)


• Predictive and Adaptive Management Approach for Omnichannel Retailing Supply Chains (Links to an external site.)


• The impact of digital transformation on the retailing value chain (Links to an external site.)

Example of Reliable and Valid Resources:

• https://www.scmr.com/ (Links to an external site.)


• http://www.apics.org/ (Links to an external site.)


• Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology (Int'l Ed), By Fitzsimmons, James A.


• Logistics and Retail Management: Emerging Issues and New Challenges in the Retail Supply Chain, by John Fernie, Kogan Page Publishers, 2009- access through RMIT Library, ProQuest Central


• Retailing Management, 2013, 9th Edition, Michael Levy, Barton A Weitz, Dhruv Grewal, McGraw-Hill Education, ISBN-13: 978-0078028991


• Journal of Operations Management


• International Journal of Operations and Production Management


• International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management


• Journal of Business Logistics


• Journal of Supply Chain Management


• Journal of Cleaner Production


• The International Journal of Logistics Management