Managing Operations and The Supply Chain

Assessment Task

You will conduct a review of the academic literature on the subject of statistical process control.

Following your review, you are to analyse a given set of data to evaluate the performance of a fictional brewery in a given scenario.

You will be expected to illustrate your discussion with examples from academic journals, the trade press and other authoritative sources.

The word count should be 2000 words ±10% ( tables, diagrams and appendices are excluded from the count).

Assessment Breakdown

1. Prepare a literature review on the subject of Statistical Process Control, covering the concept from its inception up to the present day.

Ensure that you include references to at least 10 peer-reviewed articles, no more than ten years old. You may also acknowledge older works, providing they are of sufficient importance in charting the development of SPC.

(50% of word count)

2. The supplied spreadsheet contains historic data recording the temperature of c ombined effluent discharged by a fictional brewery, Waterside Lager Limited (WLL). The data comprises temperatures recorded four times a day over the month of September 2022.

The brewery’s discharges are normally controlled within the range 25oC to 35oC. The maximum legally permitted temperature is 40oC.

Regular maintenance is performed on the balancing system (which neutralises the pH of the effluent at the expense of heating the discharge in the process), normally on a weekly basis.

Use the data to visualise the performance of the effluent control process, describing your analytical approach in detail. Include any graphs generated.

In your view, how well has the plant performed?

What priorities for quality improvements should the plant management set?

(50% of word count)

Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

c) Critically discuss the managerial relevance of topics in business operations and supply management, analysing their benefits and implementation challenges to organisations and their supply chains.

d) Apply managerial concepts, theoretical frameworks and approaches to solve specific operations and supply chain problems in a range of business case scenarios, including related implementation challenges.

f) Produce and justify appropriate informed decisions in the context by elaborating pros and cons arguments concerning application of relevant concepts and managerial frameworks.

Your grade will depend on how well you meet these learning outcomes in the way relevant for this assessment. Please see the final page of this document for further details of the criteria against which you will be assessed.

Assessment Support

Specific support sessions for this assessment will be provided by the module team and notified through NILE. You can also access individual support and guidance for your assessments from Library and Learning Services. Visit the Skills Hub to access this support and to discover the online support also available for assessments and academic skills.

Academic Integrity and Misconduct
Unless this is a group assessment, the work you produce must be your own, with work taken from any other source properly referenced and attributed. This means that it is an infringement of academic integrity and, therefore, academic misconduct to ask someone else to carry out all or some of the work for you, whether paid or unpaid, or to use the work of another student whether current or previously submitted.

For further guidance on what constitutes plagiarism, contract cheating or collusion, or any other infringement of academic integrity, please read the University’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy. Other useful resources to help with understanding academic integrity are available from UNPAC – the University of Northampton’s Plagiarism Avoidance Course.

N.B. The penalties for academic misconduct are severe and include failing the assessment, failing the module and even expulsion from the university.

Assessment Submission
To submit your work, please go to the ‘Assessment and Submission’ area on the NILE site and use the relevant submission point to upload the assignment deliverable. The deadline for this is 11.59pm (UK local time) on the date of submission. Please note that essays and text-based reports should be submitted as word documents and not PDFs or Mac files.

Written work submitted to TURNITIN will be subject to anti-plagiarism detection software. Turnitin checks student work for possible textual matches against internet available resources and its own proprietary database.

When you upload your work correctly to TURNITIN you will receive a receipt which is your record and proof of submission. If your assessment is not submitted to TURNITIN, rather than a receipt, you will see a green banner at the top of the screen that denotes successful submission.

N.B Work emailed directly to your tutor will not be marked.

Late submission of work

For first sits, if an item of assessment is submitted late and an extension has not been granted, the following will apply:

· Within one week of the original deadline – work will be marked and returned with full feedback and awarded a maximum bare pass grade.

· More than one week from original deadline – grade achievable LG (L indicating late).

For resits there are no allowances for work submitted late and it will be treated as a non-submission.

Please see the Assessment and Feedback Policy for full information on the processes related to assessment, grading and feedback, including anonymous grading. You will also find Guidance on grades and resit opportunities from the main University website. Also explained there are the meanings of the various G grades at the bottom of the grading scale including LG mentioned above.

Extensions
The University of Northampton’s general policy about extensions is to be supportive of students who have genuine difficulties in meeting an assessment deadline. It is not intended for use where pressures of work could have reasonably been anticipated.

For full details please refer to the Extensions Policy. Extensions are only available for first sits – they are not available for resits.

Mitigating Circumstances
For full guidance on Mitigating circumstances please go to Mitigating Circumstances where you will find information on the policy as well as guidance and the form for making an application. Please also see Extensions & Mitigating Circumstances guide 22_23 that compares your options.

Please note, however, that an application to defer an assessment on the grounds of mitigating circumstances should normally be made in advance of the submission deadline or examination date.

Feedback and Grades
These can be accessed through clicking on the “Gradebook” on NILE. Feedback will be provided by a rubric with summary comments.