DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (MBA520) Assignment Help

Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines

School 

SOB

Course Name 

MASTER OF BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Unit Code 

MBA520

Unit Title 

DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Assessment Author 

  

Assessment Type 

Project [Group]

Assessment Title 

Project [Group]

Unit Learning  

Outcomes covered  in this assessment

b. Possess practical knowledge of algorithms, analytics, and artificial intelligence for  harnessing data to make supply chain decisions. 

c. Apply mathematical programming and optimization models in designing supply  chain networks and processes; 

e. Plan and execute supply chain management in different industrial settings.

Weight 

20%

Total Marks 

100 Marks (this will be scaled down to 20%)

Word limit 

Not applicable

Release Date 

Week 7

Due Date 

By mid-night of week 11.

Submission  

Guidelines

All work must be submitted on Moodle by the due date along with a completed Assignment Cover Sheet. 

Reference sources must be listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using  either IEEE or APA referencing style.

Extension 

• If an extension of time to submit work is required, a Special Consideration  Application must be submitted directly to the School’s Administration Officer, in  Melbourne on Level 6 or in Sydney on Level 7. You must submit this application  three working days prior to the due date of the assignment. Further information is  available at: 

Academic  

Misconduct

• Academic Misconduct is a serious offence. Depending on the seriousness of the  case, penalties can vary from a written warning or zero marks to exclusion from  the course or rescinding the degree. Students should make themselves familiar with the full policy and procedure available at: For further information, please refer to the Academic Integrity Section in your Unit Description.

NOTE: Please note that to avoid Turn it in plagiarism you will need to submit the cover sheet separately. It is available in Moodle.

Assignment Description: 

To demonstrate business analytics skills and knowledge using different decision making and optimization methods (linear programming and application of Excel Solver) you will carry out the assignment. Please give answers/solutions for each section beneath the questions. 

PROBLEM A: Linear Programming model and application of excel solver (15 marks) 

The company Gemma Hardware develops printers compatible with personal computers, both laser and inkjet. Profits from each laser printer amount to $35.00, while inkjet printers yield $15.00. The production process involves two assembly stages. Below is a table detailing the time required for processing per unit (measured in minutes), along with the total available processing time per department: 

Printer                  Dept A   Dept B 

Laser                      10            14 

ink jet                      8             10 

total time per day   240        360 

To fulfill sales obligations, a minimum of 7 laser printers and 12 inkjet printers need to be manufactured daily. The company seeks to ascertain the optimal quantity of each printer to produce in order to maximize its profits. 

Questions: 

1. Define decision variables. 

2. Formulate integer programming model (includes objective function and constraints), and; 3. Apply excel solver to solve the problem.

 

PROMLEM B: Decision analysis (40 marks) 

Alliance Investment has a choice of investing in stocks (buying stocks 1 and 2) or keeping money in savings  account. The probabilities that the prices of these stocks will go up, stay the same, or go down are 0.25, 0.30,  and 0.45, respectively. If the prices go up, stock 1 will make $30,000 and stock 2 will make $10,000. If the  prices remain unchanged, there will be break even. If prices go down, stocks 1 and 2 will sustain losses of 

$35,000 and $5,000, respectively. 

If he keeps money in a savings account, he is guaranteed a payoff of $5,000 as earning on interest. Some  information from a broker regarding the degree of stability of future prices of stocks indicate favorable and  unfavorable assessments by the following conditional probabilities 

P(Favourable | Up) = 0.85 

P(Unfavourable | Up) = 0.15

P(Favourable | Same) = 0.50 

P(Unfavourable | Same) = 0.50

P(Favourable | Down) = 0.15 

P(Unfavourable | Down) = 0.85

To assist Alliance investment with the decision, address below requests: 

1. Define decision alternatives, states of nature, and consequence. 

2. Develop a decision tree indicating branches along with probability values. 

3. Using Bayes’ Theorem compute posterior probabilities for both favorable and unfavorable scenarios (two tables). 

4. Apply the expected value approach to make decisions as to whether Alliance Investment should invest  or keep money in a savings account. For this step

show the application of expected value approach (Ev)  and draw a clear decision tree showing the values and probabilities as well as the EV for each 

decision alternative.

 

PROMLEM C: Supply Chain model (Networking) (40 marks) 

Each group needs to select a company from the list below and use the company’s website to collect some  background information and any type of preliminary information that could help in formulating the  optimisation problem of the company. You will realize that there is no direct information about optimisation  problems of the company that you choose therefore you will need to use the company’s background information along with business analytics knowledge to formulate the problem. For instance, for an airline the problem  could be assignment of terminals, airplanes, flights and pilots. Accordingly, and based on the preliminary 

information that you collect, you need to make assumptions and build up a model for the company and solve the  problem. 

The problem should be formulated based on Transportation, Transshipment, or Assignment problems (each  group selects only one problem and only one company from the list below. E.g. Transportation for Rio  Tinto). As an example, you can choose any company in airline or Metro train industries (for assignment  problem), in manufacturing or port shipment industries (for transhipment or transportation problem). Below is  a list of companies/organizations and possible approaches to problem solving: 

Transportation problem: 

Amazon (Transportation of cargo from origin to destination)  

Rio Tinto (Transportation of cargo from origin to destination) 

Transshipment problem by manufacturing companies: 

Toyota (Transportation of parts from plants to warehouses and to customers from there)  KIA (Transportation of parts from plants to warehouses and to customers from there) 

Assignment problem by sales/servicing companies/organizations: 

Qantas (assignment of terminals, airplanes, flights)  

V-line (assignment of trains to different lines) 

Austin Hospital children emergency department (assignment of surgery theaters)

 


Note: each group will submit three files: 

Excel solution for case 1 

Excel solver for case 3  

Assignment in word document

 

Marking criteria: 

 

Assessment criteria are shown in the following table. Marks are allocated as follows:

 

Assessment  

criteria to be 

met and  

assessed

Detailed Description of the Assessment Criteria 

Breakdown  Marks

Allocated

PROMLEM A:

Criteria 1 

Formulating the model, decision variables, objective  function and constraints

5

  

Criteria 2 

Preparation of Case 1 in Excel file 

5

  

Criteria 3 

Application of excel solver to solve the problem 

5

  

PROMLEM B:

Criteria 4 

Demonstrate understanding of decision variables 

15

  

Criteria 5 

Demonstrate understanding of decision tree to  apply Expected value approach (EV) and show  expected value of perfect information (EVPI)

15

  

Criteria 6 

Application of Bayes’ Theorem. 

10

  
       

PROMLEM C:

Criteria 7 

Formulating the model, decision variables, objective  function and constraints

10

  

Criteria 8 

Preparation of Case 3 in Excel file 

10

  

Criteria 9 

Application of excel solver to solve the problem 

10

  

Criteria 10 

Discussion of the solution using sensitivity analysis 

10

  

Criteria 11 

Written communication skills: Writing style;  Paraphrasing; Spelling/Grammar; Proofreading

5

  

Total 

  

100