Implementing Secure Supply Chain Management System For Woolworths Limited

Scope and Objectives

Depending upon the notion of value chain the concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in the business organization has been developed. This report depicts the crucial importance of implementing a secure supply chain management system in Woolworths Limited for establishing a relationship between the consumers and the service providers. The SMART characteristic, scope, objectives, deliverables and project constraints are elaborated in this report.

In addition to this, a Work Breakdown Structure for reducing the workload from the project team members and key deliverables for each project phase is also illustrated in this project. Due to lack of technical support the company may face serious functional and operational issues those are required to be resolved. A risk register for resolving such risk, a detail resource plan and a cash flow is chart for this nominated project is also demonstrated in this report.    

This project is focused on implementation of Supply Chain Management (SCM) system in Woolworths Limited to retain the existing consumers and grab new customers from the competitive market.  The company has different ambitious goals in terms of intense focus on timely, quality products and services delivery to the consumers and improving the work ambiance.  Most of the companies who have planned to develop their business are focused on implementation of supply chain management system but it always exceeds the overall cost of the business. Thus, it can be said that, the result may decide they are simply not worth the overall investment.

 In Supply Chain Management a buyer supplier’s interface is established through professional business partnership or through a contract agreement. In other words, SCM is a twin pillar of trust and communication if any one factor from these components is missed then the total relationship will be interrupted. For implementing Supply Chain Management (SCM) system in Woolworths Limited necessitate upgradation of different equipments, staff training, dedicated workforce and other new process and procedures for business operations are required.

The project is about development of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Woolworths Limited for developing a relationship between the service providers and the customers.  Another scope is to monitor and control the project activities right from the supplier’s supply to the consumers.

The objectives for this project are as follows:

• To identify the functional and operational issues facing by Woolworths Limited
• To implement Supply Chain Management (SCM) System in the business organization
• To design cross functional approach transformation and collaboration among Supply Chain Management

With the successful implementation of Supply Chain Management system the business operations and other functionalities will be successfully delivered. It is expected that with the successful implementation of SCM the functions those will be delivered include inventory management, supplier management, distribution management, sales force, channel, financial and payment management also. Successful implementation of SCM demands forecasting, production planning, raw material production and smooth distribution can be designed as well. The total time required for the successful completion of the SCM implementation project 110 days within the budget of $30,400.

Project Management

The change scope management is not elaborated in this project and also all the technical excellence are out of scope for this project. The transportation cost and design capabilities of the company are project out of scope.

The project functionalities and operations become more effective if an accurate project structure is designed by allocating skilled and knowledgeable project team members. The project structure that may be designed for this project should be consists of steering committee, business design team, solution development team and solution delivery team. These departments will be operated by the members such as project manager, finance manager, operation manager, system developers, HR manager and business analyst. After analyzing the things those are to be achieved the required resources should be nominated. Proper support from the project sponsors and executive committee can be deployed.

Different types of project structures are available such as construction project, new product development project, new services and process delivery project those are to be individually followed by the project managers. For this specific company the nominated project type is new service and process delivery project. The SCM system implementation project can also be identified as a process investment program. The project structure should strictly focus on process improvement project targeting major plans of high volume transaction and business level critical services. The central resource of the company for training and inducting staffs are to be advanced enough.

The project organizational structure that is designed for Woolworths Limited is comprises of marketing director, project manager, finance manager, chief information and logistic officer, supermarket director and HR manager etc. it will reduce the cost and tie of central repository. It is necessary for the project heads to assign proper responsibilities to proper project team member. If they purposefully serve their assigned job roles within estimated timeframe then the project will be successfully accomplished.  

Proper change management will deliver up to date, improvement and responding strategies to the employees. The business process will become stronger and the overall service accountability of the organization will also enhance. The inbuilt governance in the promapp make sure that the processes are completely owned and at the same time the employees are made accountable for making sure that they are absolutely effective and appropriate from the business perspectives.

From this specific project the detail work package is elaborated in the below section:

Project Structure

                   Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure for implementing Supply chain manage in Woolworths Limited

                                                                     (Source: Created by author)

The project is consists of four phases project initiation, planning, development and project closure. All the project phases are interrelated to each other it implies that the output of one phase acts as the input of the very next phase.  For each phase there is a specific outcome which is expected by the project manager. For example at the end of the project initiation phase a project charter will be created.  The project charter will make the project team members familiar to the project objectives and goal. The chances of occurrence for different risks will also get reduced. After the creation of the project charter the project will progress for further towards the project planning. In the project planning phase the all the planning related activities will be fulfilled in terms of procurement planning, communication plan, HR management plan, contingency management, time management, cost and quality management etc. It is the role of the project manager to follow all of these activities accordingly so that the project reach the objectives.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3.3 Importance of Work Breakdown Structure 

For any project the usage of WBS stands very much beneficial. For the supply chain management system implementation in Woolworths Limited Company the reason for which the WBS should have to be utilized by the project manager are as follows:

Increase productivity: It facilitates all the effective identifications  of the knowledge set that are required for the completion of the work that are in turn facilitates the accelerated determination of the correct people for the job. With correct people on job the team members will become more responsible and focused to their job roles.

More detail view: It will give a more detail view to the project team members and make them much familiar to the project goal and objectives.

Better cost and time tracking capability: WBS gives a better cost line as well as time line tracing capability to the employees. Thus, a more realistic project can be designed within reduced budget and cost.

Better risk identification ability: It gives better risk identification ability to the employees. Moreover, it can be said that with the help of WBS the employees can easily identify the risks and their mitigation approach.

Work Breakdown Structure

Not only development of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) rather besides this the responsibilities and roles of the project manager play active role for the successful implementation of any project. The set of essential skills those help to optimize the effectiveness of WBS should possess by the project manager are as follows:

 Professional power of communication: The project manager should use proper communication skills while communicating with the rest of the project team members. Almost ninety percent of the project managers spent most of their time in communicating with the other project team members by conveying vision, mission, goals and ideas.

Leadership: Leadership is another important component that again must be possessed by the project managers. It will help to motivate the team members with his or her technical and non-technical skills.  Leadership can deliver actionable information for implementing a better project view.  

Team management: A project team is comprises of different members and the role of those projects a team members are to work collaboratively. The role of the project manager is to coordinate groups by promoting ad delegating tasks.  Team management will reduce both inter organizational and intra organizational conflict.

Negotiation: Cooperation from the project team members for the successful accomplishment of the any project is very much necessary. With professional communication only the organizational issues can be mitigated.

Risk management ability: Any project is full of different risks those are required to be framed in such a way so that those can be manageable. Proper strategies are to be developed for managing project uncertainties.

In order to avoid budget overrun at the initiation phase proper resources and budget has to be estimated by the project manager. The work package chosen for this section is the project initiation phase. The work package is comprises of 7 different activities. For each activity different resources are assigned. It is the role of the human resources to complete the assigned activity within the budget and time. For the successful implementation of Supply Chain Management (SCM) system in Woolworths Limited the resources play vital roles and thus the budget must be estimated properly for each of the human resources and physical resources are as well. The standard rates estimated for the different resources are respectively showed in the below tabular form:

Risk Management

                                                            Figure 2: Cash flow details of the project

                                                                      (Source: created by author)

Besides the cash flow analysis another alternative cost estimation technique is Return on Investment (ROI). With the help of the ROI the benefits that may be generated from the investment become easier to calculate. Besides ROI there are some other alternative cost analysis techniques available in the market. After analyzing the detail of staff engagement and market operational and functional management it is defined that the alternative cost flow analysis techniques are also very much beneficial from the business and organizational end.

This mathematical formula the project investors can use foe evaluating the investment rate and also can judge that how perfect a particular investment may perform comparing to others. The selection of this mechanism is helpful to develop different business case for any specific proposal.  The overall ROI for any organization is sometimes utilized as a path to grade how accurate the company can be managed. The ROI is the ratio of total benefit and tot cost, where the net benefit can be calculated by calculating the difference between the net profit and net cost invested. This mechanism is referred to as one of the most widely used incremental financial gain. A positive return from the investment always shows benefits for the project on the other hand a negative return shows that the project is not at all successful.

• Risk management saves valuable resources in terms of time, income, asset and property
• It can create a secure ambiance for the staffs, visitors and consumers
• Reduce the legal liabilities by increasing the operational stability
• It can protect people and property from the external harm
• It can define the insurance requirements for saving unnecessary premium

For managing the project level risks the four basic phases those are to be followed by the project manager and project team members include risk identification, risk analysis, risk prioritization and risk mitigation strategy development. After prioritization of the risks proper mitigation strategies are to be developed by the project manager. In order to manage the risks different control techniques are available and those are as follows:

• Risk avoidance
• Loss of commercial and economical reduction
• Separation
• Duplication and diversification
• Development of risk register

Open communication is approach is used by the project manager and project team members so that they can share their ideas on innovation and creativity with the rest of the project team members. While the employees of Woolworths Limited were facing serious communication issue open communication is identified as a valid techniques rather solution for the inadequate communication issue. Besides open communication there are many other mechanism that may be used for successfully mitigate the issue of inadequate communication within the business organization.  On job training and development program will also increase the interactive communication practice of the project team members. If the project team members regularly attend the workshops then also the communication issues of the company will be reduced.  However, among these alternatives the most suitable approach is usability of open communication rather it can be said that open communication is absolutely justified.

Resource Planning and Cost Control

Conclusion: 

From the overall discussion it can be concluded, that technology developments as well as existence of the internet have remarkably altered the direction firms while doing the business. The company supports supply chain management in terms of more effective information flows within and also among the companies. For increasing the competitive advantages and commercial revenue Woolworths Limited is willing to incorporate the supply chain management system to their company. In order to make proper organizational decision the specific mechanism of supply chain management is very helpful. It has been found that, it helps to give commercial revenue and competitive advantages at the same time. With the help of professional supply chain management the cost behavior and all other probable differentiation factors can be identified accordingly by the project head and the project team members successfully. SCM generates support activities for facilitating the work in an effective and efficient manner. A risk register, project schedule or WBS, and a detail cash flow chart is also elaborated in this report.  

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