The purpose of the term paper is to evaluate your competence in communicating ideas and applying the concepts learned in this class to a real-world case.

Topic: Your paper should have a general theme and should discuss and analyze any of the inventory concepts and how a company is using these concepts or making changes to achieve success. The paper should be a minimum of 2000 words to adequately cover the material and use a minimum of 4 different resources.

1. General Structure of the Paper
The paper is based on the application of a specific topics covered in the class discussions and the chapter readings. The topic may be selected from the class materials or from any other business or logistic class.

A good structure of the paper is the following:

a. Introduction. The introduction lays out the specific research questions, the context of the paper, and provides a brief overview of the paper. In general, it is a good idea to write the introduction at the end after you have finished the research and spelled out your findings and conclusions. This way, if the paper has a central theme, it is useful to point it out at the outset.

b. Theoretical Concepts. This section lays out the theoretical framework that guides the paper. It discusses the relevant theoretical literature and derives from it a set of hypotheses that are researched in the next sections.

c. Narrative of the concepts. Brief description of the facts and the processes you are studying. Be sure to discuss the actors, the problems, and the facts that are relevant to your analysis, and not provide unnecessary information.

d. Analysis. This section applies the concepts, approaches, ideas, and methods entailed in the theory you are using on the logistical concepts. Be sure to relate the analysis of the case to specific hypotheses that you had specified in the theory section. The key question here is whether and how do the facts of the case either support or contradict the hypotheses. Also, it is useful to say something about if and how the theory helps explain seemingly inexplicable aspects of the historical case.

e. Conclusion. This section summarizes your findings and whatever other conclusions you derived from the research. You can also point out shortcomings or advantages in the theory on the basis of your study of the case. If there are policy implications, please mention them.