Department of Operations Management

(ORM300T)

GROUP ASSIGNMENT 2 -SEMESTER 2 2021

NB* A zero mark will be given to any student who submit as an individual

assignment or work

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1.1 Read the case study below and answer questions that follow:

“In 2015, Thabang van Wyk IT Suppliers (TvWTS) did what would seem to be a near

impossible task. It began doing business with 5,000 suppliers over the Internet-sending

purchase orders, receiving invoices and paying suppliers, all using World Wide Web as

its transaction-processing network”. Setting up 5,000 suppliers to do business on the

Internet was relatively easy compared to the resistance of suppliers to link to TvWTS via

EDI (electronic data interchange). Suppliers who did not have large contracts with

TvWTS balked at EDI because of the expense of special software and a VAN (value-

added network) that were needed to do EDI. No such problem with using the Internet:

Suppliers do not need special software or a costly VAN to do business with TvWTS.

management strategy: TvWTS sees great value in using the Internet to collaborate with

suppliers and tap into their expertise much more rapidly than previously. “The Internet

will also allow TvWTS to collaborate with suppliers over scheduling issues. If the

company wants to increase production of a certain product it will be able to check with

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schedule cutbacks, it will be able to notify suppliers almost instantaneously and excess

inventory can be avoided”. And although supply chains are viewed as sequential, TvWTS

does not necessarily want to manage them that way. Rather, it wants to use the Internet

to manage multiple tiers of suppliers simultaneously. An example of this is how it deals

with CMs (contract manufacturers). The company sends forecasts and purchase orders

to the CMs for the printed circuit boards they supply. It also gives all the component

based portal to provide a single entry point to TvWTS. As is the case with most large

companies. TvWTS has multiple interfaces with its suppliers, including engineering,

quality, as well as purchasing, and typically suppliers have to connect to separate URLs

(universal resource locators) in a company. TvWTS’ s portal provides a single point of

entry for suppliers, making it easier for suppliers to do business with TvWTS and

increasing the speed of the supply chain. Speed is vitally important in the electronics

industry due to very short product life cycles. If products do not get to the market quickly,

most of the profit opportunity is lost. Still another benefit envisioned by TvWTS will be

the ability to form strategic alliances with some of its suppliers. In the past, the fact that

many suppliers used by TvWTS for its production processes were as far as 5,000

kilometres away made it difficult to build strategic alliances with them. TvWTS believes

2. What advantage did TvWTS’s use of the Internet have for small suppliers? (3)

3. Aside from cost reduction, what major value does TvWTS envision for its

interaction with suppliers? (3)

4. How does use of the Internet for procurement reduce mistakes? Indicate how

using the Internet made that benefit possible. (4)

5. How does having a Web–based portal help TvWTS’s suppliers? (3)

CASE STUDY 2: QUALITY AT ABC (PTY) Ltd

Protect life. Protect truth. That is the mission of ABC (PTY) Ltd, the company that

produces public safety technologies such as Taser electrical smart weapons and body

cameras for law enforcement around the globe. In business since 1993, the company

manufactures three weapons lines inside its high-tech headquarters in Scottsdale,

Arizona. Ninety-nine percent of its customers are in law enforcement, military,