In summary, students:

1. Apply design thinking principles and techniques to explore and critically review a contemporary business issue or opportunity.

2. Produce a project proposal to address a business issue or opportunity.

3. Collaboratively review, assess and endorse a project proposal and proposed solutions.

4. Communicate or pitch a project proposal to key stakeholders to gain support for adoption and implementation

The students will work as part of a group to deliver a completed project for the client at the conclusion of Business Design Project 2. This means that the project they started in Project 1 will be completed at the end of Project 2.

Project design and planning

Students will design their project based on the value their project will deliver to the client.

The first step is to prepare a proposal for the project. The proposal will be based on an initial brief prepared by the client and on discussion that students will have with the client during the first week on the project.

The proposal will form the basis of an agreement students will have with the client about how the business value of the project will be determined, how requirements for the products the project will deliver are to be identified and described, how the project is to be conducted and how the products will be delivered. The client is required to sign off on the proposal before the project proceeds further.

Students will conduct an analysis of the client’s requirements and they will identify the value that they will deliver to the client. The outcome of the analysis will be a report detailing:

· an outline of the client’s business context and process and its needs for the value the project could deliver

· a high-level description of the solution the project could deliver

· a set of recommendations for implementing the project.

Students will prepare a high-level plan for the delivery of the project.

Execution

Students will use a project management methodology known as "Scrum" to deliver the project.

The Scrum methodology organises projects into sets of activities which occupy a fixed time. Scrum refers to the fixed time periods as "Sprints". Each sprint will occupy four weeks.

Students will meet with their group academic supervisor (lecturer) weekly to monitor their progress and to be guided in the way they carry out their work. The academic supervisor will assess their performance at the conclusion of each sprint.

At the end of the project, students will be expected to have delivered the solution(s) described in their business report to the client and have the client indicate satisfaction with delivery by signing off

In the second half of the year, students will integrate and consolidate their learning to analyse a contemporary business problem to produce a business plan or propose an operations solution.

This course extends the experience from Business Design Project 1. In this course students will integrate and consolidate their learning to creatively execute a project proposal. They will apply design thinking principles and techniques to produce creative and innovative plans, options and solutions to address a contemporary business issue or opportunity. This course offers them opportunities to examine broader business issues from multiple perspectives to inform innovative responses to complex problems.

Challenges:

1. Distribution Planning Management

a. Sustainability in distribution system (e.g., for F&B and perishable products)

b. Emergency distribution (e.g., for medical and clinical products)

c. Last mile delivery

d. Natural disasters challenges in distribution planning

e. Complex distribution channel challenges

2. Warehousing Management

a. Waste management in packaging

b. Sustainability in warehousing

c. Robot vs human

3. Sourcing and Procurement Management

a. Global sourcing challenges

b. Environmental challenges such as natural disasters

c. Quality control in outsourcing

d. 3PL/4PL/5PL

4. Reverse Logistics

a. Products recall challenges

b. Customer satisfaction challenges / Customer service challenges

c. Customer loyalty and customer retention challenges

5. Inventory Management

a. Stockout vs overstock

b. Bullwhip effect in retail sector

c. Demand pattern identification / Inventory optimisation solution

d. RFID implementation challenges

6. Transportation Planning Management

a. Sharp Fluctuations in fuel pricing and its impact on transportation planning

b. Driverless transportation system

7. Problem Solving/Re-engineering

a. Implementation of radical and incremental innovations and their challenges

8. Operations Optimisation

a. Freight capacity optimisation

b. Ports capacity optimisation