College of Business and economic

Department of logistics and supply Chain management

Essentials of Supply Chain Management

GROUP 5 ASSIGNMENT
PREPARED BY
NAME ID NO
1. TSINAT FEKADE TIMERGA……………..……………….………………………...RMSS-9298-/23

2.TSINAT SEYFU GIRU…………………………………………….……..………….…...RMSS-1752-/23

3.WEGEN BEHAILU ESHETU……………………………………..….………………..RSS-9499/23

4.YAIKOB ABIRHAM DEYASO…………………………………………….…………...RMSS-3508-/23

5.YEABSIRA GEZAHEGN HABTE……………………..……………..…..………… RMSS-7781-/23

6.YEHUALASHET NIBRET ALEMAYEHU…………….…………….….…………..RMSS-7432-/23

7.YIMEGN ZEWDIE GILIE…………………………..…….….……………………….RMSS-9632-/23

8.YOSEPH GASHAW MEKONNEN ………………………………….……………. RMNS-0488-/23

SUBMISSION DATE: 15/04/2017 E.C / JANUARY 23, 2025 G.C

SUBMITTED TO: INSTRUCTOR ENDRIS

 Table of Contents

Content page

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………..1

1. Strategic Guidelines for Designing Systems……………………………………………………..2

1.1. Closely align system designs with the business goals and performance

targets they are intended to accomplish …………………………………………………………….3

1. 2. Changing the Competitive Landscape………………………………………………………..3

1.3. Leverage the strengths of existing systems infrastructure.…………………………..…..3

1.4. Use the simplest possible combination of technology and business

Procedures to achieve the maximum number of performance targets………….…………4

1.5. Structure the design so as to provide flexibility in the development

sequence used to create the system.…………………………………………………………....……4

1.6. Do not try to build a system whose complexity exceeds

the organization ’s capabilities.…………………………………………………………………….…….5

1. 7. Do not renew a project using the same people or the same system

design after it has once failed..……………………………………………………………………………5

Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………6
References…………………………………………………………………………………………………......7

I
Introduction

Designing supply chain systems can be a complex task that requires active involvement
from business managers alongside technical experts. Effective control over strategic
decisions is crucial for ensuring that new systems align with organizational goals and
provide value.

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1.Strategic Guidelines for Designing Systems
Designing supply chain systems or any other kind of system can quickly
become a very complex undertaking. The business manager can come

to feel overwhelmed by the possible choices and be tempted to leave

this activity to the technical experts. Do not give in to this temptation.
Business management must remain actively involved with the technical
people in creating the conceptual design for the system. It is in this
activity that the business manager can exercise very effective control
over the strategy that the company will take to accomplish its goal.

This activity cannot be left entirely to technical people because they

usually
do not have the depth of business knowledge that is needed to make
the best decisions.
The best approach is for business and technical people to work together and generate a
number of possible conceptual designs. Evaluate

the goodness of each conceptual design by applying the seven guidelines for the design
of new systems.

These guidelines provide a basis to compare different designs and to select the
conceptual design that has the best chance of success.

A design that respects all seven of these guidelines is the best. It may still be a
workable design if one or two of these

guidelines are violated (as long as it is not the first of the seven guidelines shown
below). If guidelines are violated, there need to be very

good reasons for doing so and specific compensations made to cover those violations.

If three or more guidelines are broken, then the conceptual design is seriously flawed
and it is very unlikely that the design can be successfully built.

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The seven system design guidelines are:

1.1. Closely align system designs with the business goals and performance

targets they are intended to accomplish.

For any systems development project to be a success it must directly support the
organization to achieve one or more of its goals. No new system can be effective until
you have first identified or created the business opportunity that will make the system
worth building and no new system will bring any sustained benefit to your company

unless it supports the efficient exploitation of the business opportunity it was built to
address.

1.2. Use systems to change the competitive landscape.

Ask yourself what seems impossible to do today, but if it could be done, would
fundamentally change what your company does in a positive way.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. In the words of the

Nordstrom’s motto, think of what would “surprise and delight”

your customers. Look for opportunities to create a transformation or value shift in your
market. Find ways to do things that

provide dramatic cost savings or productivity increases. Place yourself in your

competitor’s shoes and think of what course you could take that would be the least
likely to be foreseen or

quickly countered or copied. As long as you are able to do something of value that your
competitors cannot, you have an advantage . If you are going to take bigger risks and
incur larger costs to develop a system, then make sure it is a system that will change

the competitive landscape.

This is the kind of system that can deliver benefits that might justify bigger risks and
costs.

1.3. Leverage the strengths of existing systems infrastructure.

When existing systems have proven over time to be stable and responsive,

find ways to incorporate them into the design of new systems. The purpose of strategy
is to best use the means available to the organization to accomplish its goal. The design
of a system is the

embodiment of the strategy being used. Build new systems on the strengths of older
systems. 3
 That is what nature does in the evolutionary process. New systems provide value only
insofar as they

provide new business capabilities. Time spent replacing old systems with new systems
that do essentially the same things will not, as a general rule, provide enough value to
justify the cost.

1.4. Use the simplest possible combination of technology and business

Procedures to achieve the maximum number of performance targets.

A simple mix of technology and process that can achieve several

different performance targets increases the probability that at least some performance
targets can actually be achieved. This is because simple combinations of technology
and business process reduce the complexity and the risk associated with the systems.

Using a different combination of technology and business process to achieve each

different performance target multiplies the cost

and the complexity of the entire undertaking and reduces the overall probability of
success.

1.5. Structure the design so as to provide flexibility in the development

sequence used to create the system.

Break the system design into separate components or objectives and as much as
possible, run the work on individual objectives in parallel. Try not to make the

achievement of one objective dependent on the prior achievement of another objective.

In this way, delays in the work toward

one objective will not impact the progress toward other objectives. Use people on the
project who have skills that can be used to achieve a variety of different objectives.

If you use the same technology to achieve several different objectives, it is much easier

to shift people from one objective to another as needed because

the skill sets used are the same. Your project plan should foresee

and provide for an alternative plan in case of failure or delays in

achieving objectives as scheduled. The design of the system you

are building should allow you to cut some system features if

needed and yet still be able to deliver solid value to the business.

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1.6. Do not try to build a system whose complexity exceeds

the organization ’s capabilities.

The beginning of wisdom is a sense of what is possible so don’t bite off more than you
can chew. When defining business goals and the systems to reach those goals, aim

for things that are within your reach. Set challenging goals but not hopeless goals.

The people in your organization need to have confidence in themselves in order to rise
to a challenge. Avoid exhausting their confidence in vain efforts to reach unrealistic

goals.

1. 7. Do not renew a project using the same people or the same system

design after it has once failed.

A mere reinforcement of effort or Just trying harder is not a sufficient enough change to
ensure the success of a project after it has once failed. People are probably

demoralized after the first failure and will not rise to the challenge of doing the work
again unless there are meaningful changes in the project approach. The new approach
must clearly reflect what was learned from the previous failure and offer a

better way to achieve the business goal and performance targets.

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Summary

The document outlines seven key guidelines for designing effective supply chain
systems. These guidelines emphasize the importance of aligning system designs with
business goals, leveraging existing infrastructure, simplifying processes, allowing
flexibility in development, understanding organizational capabilities, and learning from
past failures. Following these principles can enhance the likelihood of success in
system implementation.

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References

From essentials of Supply Chain Management material