Business Logistics

MMM267 – Business Logistics: This report makes up 50% of entire unit mark
CSL Research Report 3000 words:
Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL Limited, Australian biopharmaceutical company)
Description
As the world is emerging from the pandemic and getting used to new COVID-normal way of living and doing business, global supply chains are still struggling to recover their pre-pandemic levels of functional capacity and efficiency. With staff being furloughed or having to isolate, businesses have had to run at much less than full capacity and in many cases have had to suspend their operations outright. Transportation links have been hugely impacted too with freight deliveries being delayed or curtailed due to testing, isolation and vaccination requirements affecting the workforce. The ongoing military conflict in Eastern Europe has added a further dimension of complexity to matters with a resultant energy crisis and burgeoning oil prices fuelling inflation and throwing economies into crisis not seen in many years.
Some businesses with proper contingency planning in place have been able to absorb the impact better of the tumultuous global events better than their competition, thereby gaining an advantageous position in the market. Others have tried to learn their lessons the hard way and the ones to have survived and come out the other side will therefore be expected to be smarter and better prepared for the next disruption, at least such can be hoped!
For this assignment, you are to select CSL and write an in-depth research report on their operations and supply chain practices with particular emphasis on how well they have (or haven’t) faced the various global challenges and what they have possibly learnt that could enable them to be better prepared to face further massively disruptive events in future.

Specific requirements
Your submitted research report must specifically address/focus on the following three key aspects: 1. Provide a brief descriptive profile of your chosen business organization (e.g., nature of the business, level of competition it faces, target customers, recent financial performance etc.)
2. Identify some of the major suppliers/sources of supply for your chosen business organization and provide a descriptive analysis of the company’s current operational and supply chain practices. ‘Current’ here can mean either before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic or at present i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic. In writing your descriptive analysis, it is very important that you clearly articulate your understanding of STRATEGIC PLANNING in Operations Management (OM)/Supply Chain Management (SCM) theory as covered in the weekly class (attached class PowerPoint slides).
STRATEGIC PLANNING = Process of determining long-term goals, policies, and plans for an organization. Helps an organization build a strong position to achieve its goals, despite unforeseen external forces
3. To what extent do you think are the business organization’s operations management and supply chain practices sustainable? What evidence can you find through your online research about the business organization’s ongoing relationship with its key suppliers? In your opinion, how resilient are the operations and supply chain practices of your chosen business organization to any future disruptive events? Based on your research findings on the company’s supply chain practices, provide recommendations to maintain/improve the sustainability of their sourcing policies and resilience to future disruptions going forward.
References

Academic References
Must use Collier and Evans (2021) Chapter 3 for intext referencing (please do a search on term ‘Strategic Planning’)
Collier D and Evans J (2021) Operations and Supply Chain Management, Cengage Learning, 2nd edn, Boston, USA.
And a minimum of six (6) academic/scholarly sources.

Non-Academic References
Following are some of the suggested non-academic sources:
Organization web sites:
– Annual Reports (Secure supply under COVID-19) https://investors.csl.com/annualreport/2021/40/
– Annual Reviews
– Media Releases
– Stock Market Analysis (Macquire) https://investors.csl.com/site/PDF/042f9e08-b33a-45b1-aa8d-e743b0414f88/MacquariePresentation2022

Credible media websites (including but not limited to):
– The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review (AFR), The ABC, Business Review Weekly

Report Structure
Title Page
– Table of Contents
– Executive Summary
– Background and Introduction
– Description and critical analysis of supply chain practices of the chosen business (using Strategic Planning OM/SCM theoretical aspect from the Week 2.
– Recommendations on improving/maintaining sustainability and resilience & conclusion
– References