A Supply Chain Information Management System for 3M
Assignment 1 for Contemporary Information Systems
Semester 1, 2017
Due Dates
An optional draft report is due no later than 4.30pm Thursday, 13 April 2017.
A final report is due no later than 4.30pm Friday, 5 May 2017.
A Group Assignment
The first task in this assignment is to find another person to work with in a group of two. Note
that groups of three are not allowed and a “group of one” will only be allowed if an odd
number of students enrol in the paper, and that will change if there is an early withdrawal.
A first option is to find someone you know and trust to work with you. A second option is to
advise your availability to be in a group in the Introductions forum on Blackboard.
Find a partner and then notify Dennis Viehland ([email protected]) by Friday, 3
March (please include current email addresses in the notification). If you don’t have a partner
by that date, notify Dennis and he will randomly pair solo students into groups. All groups are
expected to be formed and working by the end of the day on Monday, 6 March.
The Target Company: 3M
3M is a global manufacturing company. 3M manufactures a variety of products, including
spray adhesives, scouring sponges, masking tape, picture-hanging hooks, duct tape and Post-It
notes – and these are only the products that I could find in my home!
Much has been written about supply chain management at 3M. These articles should inform
your investigation, but not be the focus of this assignment. The purpose of this assignment is
to examine fundamental practices in provision of information for supply chain management
for a specific product manufactured by 3M.
A Business Report
This assignment invites you to take off your student hat and put on a business hat (e.g., as a
systems planning analyst at 3M). As much as possible, this report should reflect the highest
standards of professional communication expected in a business report.
A typical report will include all of the sections identified below and a cover page with an
appropriate descriptive title. You may use either academic referencing (e.g., APA) or
footnotes to identify material from external sources.
Your target audience is a senior management group at 3M. Assume the reader is a
knowledgeable business person, but not an information technologist. So, for example, you
won’t need to define what is a supply chain, but you probably should include an explanation
of what is a rich picture and its purpose in this report.
Part 1: Supply Chain Information for 3M 10 marks
Describe a generalised, theoretical supply chain for one of the products manufactured by 3M.
A diagram of the supply chain with explanatory text is required. The supply chain is both
general (specific companies in the supply chain are not expected) and theoretical (one of your
own creation), but it should be specific to the product you have selected.
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Use a rich picture (a soft systems planning technique you will learn about in unit 5) to identify
what information needs to be gathered from the supply chain that will provide 3M’s strategic
managers, divisional managers and operations managers with the information they need to
optimise strategic, management and operational decisions relating to supply and distribution.
A rich picture with explanatory text is required, and also text and/or tables to identify the
information needs of the managers.
Part 2: A Supply Chain Information Management System for 3M 9 marks
Identify one of the information systems from the readings (e.g., enterprise resource planning
system, decision support system) and discuss how it can be deployed to provide valuable
planning and resource information within the various management decision-making levels
listed above. Obviously what you recommend here should link back to what was
recommended in Part 1.
This section should include: (a) a description of the information system that is suitable for the
target audience, (b) as specifically as possible, how the decision-making information
identified in part 1 will be used in the system and (c) as specifically as possible, how the
information will be delivered to managers. If diagrams or tables will facilitate your
explanation, use them.
Part 3: Discussion 9 marks
Justify the information system you are recommending by explaining its value to decision
makers at 3M (advantages) as well as any drawbacks (disadvantages). This discussion should
be as specific as possible to the information you provided in parts 1 and 2.
To make the discussion of this report complete, be sure there is an executive summary (onehalf
to full page summary of the report including recommendations and findings) at the
beginning, an introduction (about 3M and to state the purpose and importance of the report) at
the front and a conclusion (a paragraph or two that provides an uplifting statement about what
is being recommended) at the end.
Presentation 6 marks
As stated above, this business report should reflect the highest standards of professional
communication. This includes grammar, capitalisation, punctuation, spelling, idea flow,
sentence structure, formatting, page numbers, etc. In all of these matters and more, be
consistent and be correct.
Participation in Discussion Forums 16 marks
The readings in units 1-5 are an integral and essential requirement for completing this
assignment. Accordingly, although these marks are awarded separately from the report – and
as an individual, not a group – participation in the discussion forums make up 16 of the 50
marks on assignment 1.
As an individual, contribute to four online discussion forums pertaining to the readings for
this assignment (units 1-4) for 4 marks each. Marks are allocated on the quality and
originality of the contribution. For example, rather than simply summarise the readings you
should search for more information about the topic and add observations from those readings,
provide links or references to additional resources and/or give your own opinions on the
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readings and/or other entries in the discussion forum. The appendix to this assignment offers
more suggestions to obtain full marks here.
Submitting the Final Report
1. The maximum word count for this assignment is 3,000 words. No minimum word count
applies, just be sure the assignment fulfils all of the expectations outlined above. Penalty
marks will be applied to any submission that exceeds 3,000 words.
2. The assignment must be largely in your own words. It will be uploaded to TurnItIn, which
will check the work for originality. Submissions that have excessive matching against
unreferenced sources or other students’ work will be submitted to the Disciplinary
Committee and/or a penalty for plagiarism will apply.
3. Do not include a table of contents or list of tables/figures. These are not included in small
business reports and interfere with the matching system on TurnItIn.
4. Do not attach an Assignment Cover Sheet. Not only is this not expected in a business
report, it also interferes with the matching system on TurnItIn.
5. The due date is no later than 4.30pm on Friday, 5 May 2017. Assignments submitted after
this time will be penalised 5 marks for every 24 hours of lateness.
6. The assignment is marked out of a total of 50 marks, according to the marking criteria
listed above.
7. You may submit a draft of your work once for formative feedback. The draft will be
mostly reviewed for completeness (i.e., are all major components present), not content or
presentation. Comments will be offered to help you to improve your work. To take
advantage of this offer your draft assignment must be submitted no later than 4.30pm on
Thursday, 13 April 2017.
Upload Declaration
All submissions are to be uploaded to TurnItIn. Accordingly, in uploading your contributions
to the discussion forums and business report to TurnItIn you agree to the following
conditions:
1. You understand it is your responsibility to keep a copy of your assignment.
2. This assessment is entirely your own work and has not been submitted in any other course
of study.
3. In this assessment you have acknowledged:
a. the source of direct quotes from the work of others,
b. the ideas of others (includes work from private or professional services, past
assessments, other students, books, journals, cut/paste from Internet sites and/or other
materials) and
c. the source of diagrams.
This includes “minimal paraphrasing” – changing a few words in a direct quote does not
make this “your own work”. Either quote directly (include quotation marks, citation and
reference) or substantially rewrite the idea so it is expressed in your own words (include
citation and reference).
4. You understand that TurnItIn is a software system that detects plagiarism and copying,
and that it will be used on your assignment.
5. AUT regulations regarding academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, are included in
Part 7 (Academic Discipline) of the General Academic Regulations found at
http://www.aut.ac.nz/about-aut/university-publications/academic-calendar
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Appendix: How to Make an Excellent Contribution in Online Discussion Forums
Online discussion is a critical part of Contemporary Information Systems. It more or less
replaces discussion that might happen in lecture and 24 of 100 marks are awarded for
participation in discussion forums. So this section provides some suggestions for how to make
an excellent contribution.
This advice may not be applicable to all topics in all readings, so keep that in mind.
Frequently I use examples from the first unit, but that is only because that is the first reading
you will read. Most examples could be rewritten for most other readings.
(1) Start with a meaningful title. “Unit 1” is supremely poor. “System Development” is better,
but “Innovative Systems Development at Orion Health” (for example) is best. A meaningful
title is best practice for discussion forums and helps other students to read and add to your
thread.
(2) Don’t just repeat what is in the reading. An introductory paragraph is okay, but don’t
simply point out 3, 4 or even 6 topics that were covered in the reading, with 1-3 sentences
about each topic.
(3) Similarly, cover 1-2 topics in depth, not 3-4 topics superficially. This is perhaps the item
in which most students lose marks. Your contributions should be analytical, insightful,
reflective of personal experience or some combination of these. Your contribution should
usually reference external resources (show you have done some research) and it should
always be directly relevant to the topic.
(4) Avoid “safe topics”, go for the challenging ones. For example in the first reading, “safe”
contributions stay in areas such as m-commerce, artificial intelligence, robotics and ebusiness.
That is okay (no marks off), but extra consideration is given to contributions that
venture into challenging topics such as competitive advantage, diffusion of innovation theory
or financial evaluation of IS projects. Don’t be safe – stretch yourself.
(5) Keep a business focus. “Business” is defined broadly – it could include science,
government, non-profits, etc. – but avoid, for example, discussing the role of robotics in the
Terminator movies.
(6) It is okay to start a new thread, but it is even better if you can make a substantial
contribution to an existing thread. This is especially true when you have something
significantly new to add or an alternative view to present.
The six comments above improve content, which is most of the marking criteria. Even with
excellent content you can lose marks with language and presentation, as follows:
(7) Write like a business professional. Avoid colloquial phrases such as “hey guys” or “check
this out” and if you have to say “this is cool” then at least explain what is cool about it.
(8) Mistakes in spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, etc. can result in a reduction in marks. A
suggestion: type your contribution in Word and spell check it, at least, before cutting and
pasting it into the forum.
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(9) Format counts too. Generally use a single font (not 2 or 3 fonts) of a uniform size. Use
bold, italics and all caps sparingly and appropriately.
(10) Fully cite all examples, illustrations, data, etc. in the text. Use a consistent format such as
(Ref 1), [1] or (Cook, 2012) in the text. Then make sure an identifiable reference is included
at the end.
(11) Give a full reference. Specifically, not just a URL, but include a title (for sure) and,
optionally, the author and date if these are present.
Finally, the rules about plagiarism on page 3 also apply to contributions to the discussion
forums. All submissions to the discussion forums will be submitted to TurnItIn and any
plagiarised material will receive zero marks