Outstanding Reputation For Service And Quality
Order ID:89JHGSJE83839 Style:APA/MLA/Harvard/Chicago Pages:5-10 Instructions:
Outstanding Reputation For Service And Quality
LMGT 1319 Individual Project (Fall 2021)
It is October 2021 and you were recently promoted to General Manager, DFW Warehouse Operations, for a food distribution company based in Ft. Worth. The company has a large distribution network across the state of Texas with one of the largest facilities located near DFW airport. It stores dry, refrigerated, and frozen food products that are delivered to large grocery chains. Texas Cowboys Consumables (TCC) is proud of its ability to store and distribute every type of food item, with minimal loss due to damage or product rotation.
TCC had an outstanding reputation for service and quality. The company was looking into expanding to home delivery as a new revenue source and had plans to partner with Kroger before the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic devastated TCC. Hit particularly hard was its DFW warehouse. The top management at the facility chose to have a “team building” excursion to South Padre Island during spring break. All managers, unbeknownst to them, came back as carriers of the virus. It spread like wildfire through the workforce. Within two weeks, almost all the salaried staff and a third of the hourly workforce were in self-isolation. Operations ground to a halt right when clients desperately needed food distributed to their stores. Two large chains dropped TCC after a month due to extreme service disruptions.
As the U.S. got back to work, the remaining loyal clients questioned TCC’s ability to meet their needs. They are particularly concerned about reports from Asia of a 4th wave of COVID-19 coming from China. The CEO, Bernie Biden, called you into his office. “Look. I know you weren’t with us during the height of the pandemic, but we can’t survive a new wave if we don’t change what we are doing. First, it was readily apparent we did not have an adequate emergency response plan. We conducted a Risk Management exercise and implemented a plan based on lessons learned so far. I want you to take a fresh look at how we can best protect our DFW warehouse employees. What risks do the employees face? What can be mitigated, transferred, eliminated, or retained? What warehouse procedures should be in place to protect both our employees and those that interact with them? Are there any new technologies or innovations from industry or the medical industry we should pursue? Keep a future pandemic foremost in mind, but don’t forget about other threatening scenarios.
Second, we are close to landing the home delivery business for Kroger in spite of our performance in the spring. I want you to look at how to protect our employees and customers during home delivery operations. What are the best procedures to ensure their safety? Kroger is very interested in our plans to protect our people and customers.
Third, our intent is to continue operations during the next wave of COVID. But I would like your recommendation on how to ensure we continue operations if our employees become positive with COVID-19. How do we best keep operations running? I want to avoid the sad situation that happened in the spring, with the fast spread of the virus in the facility. What precautions do we take when the first employee becomes positive? How do we replace workers quickly when several have to start self-isolation?
You made a commitment to the CEO to provide a report no later than 5 weeks from today detailing the answers to his three concerns.
Deliverables
Part 1 – Group exercise
Each student is assigned to a group. The group will work together to:
- Define the problem (develop a problem statement) for each of the CEO’s concerns
- Develop a research plan – what are the questions to ask; what type of sources are appropriate; where to find the sources; tentative list of sources
- Determine 3 questions to ask the instructor for clarification
The group will submit one document (in Word or PDF) to the instructor. The instructor will provide feedback to the group and the group will confirm their understanding. The group can submit further questions for clarity and understanding.
The instructor will “close the loop” in the following session with a video summarizing the question responses & directions for the next lesson related to the project.
Part 2 – Individual Paper
Each student working independently will write a 5 – 7 page report that covers the three main concerns for the CEO. Find information on what supply chain companies are doing to mitigate risks due to COVID-19. Research new technologies or techniques companies or the government are adopting to protect employees. Make sure to cite the sources, and include a Works Cited page. Use the standard MLA format for the report. Double-space with 12-pt. Times New Roman font, and 1” margins. Submit the document in Word or PDF.
The report is an individual effort worth 200 points (20%) of the final grade.