Project Plan
Project Plan
Project topic
The Topic for this proposal project is the effects of Covid-19 port disruptions on global supply chains and their impacts on business performance. “Port efficiency impacts organizations throughout the supply chain—suppliers, manufacturers, logistics service providers (LSPs), freight forwarders, cargo shipping lines and others” (blumeglobal). Everyone can benefit from greater insight into how ports work. This project will explore some of the problems with the current port system and discuss possible solutions to help streamline port and downstream supply chain operations as it relates to the effects of the pamdemic.
Alignment to the Program of Study
When Covid-19 emerged, many countries responded by laying down restrictions to minimize and contain its spread. These measures included restricting travel and transportation from and into a country. These disruptions caused port disruptions, which are critical for the global supply chain. Disturbances of the worldwide supply chain have crippled many businesses worldwide, as many are recording losses due to lack of stock. Therefore, the topic of the project is to investigate the effects of Covid-19 port disruptions on global supply chains and their impacts on business performance. Business performance will be measured by the level of sales and profitability indexes. Make a clear statement about how this topic aligns with the Capella DBA global operations and SCM specialization.
Project Problem
Problem to be Addressed
The general business problem is that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread supply chain inefficiencies, which continue to disrupt the retail industry and cause a loss of revenues. “Serious disruptions affected 57%, with 72% reporting a negative effect (17% reported a significant negative effect, and 55% mostly negative)” (Harapko 2020). Covid-19 is being felt globally across various human operations. Covid-19 has undermined activities in ways that are challenging to address. Particularly, the pandemic has had a severe impact on supply chains worldwide. Most of the affected regions, for instance China, are the heart of many global supply chains. Supply chain disruptions are often detrimental to businesses and can have long term consequences on performance.
Disruptions of port activities present a challenge for businesses since they affect the bottom line of companies. The specific problem is that companies are forced to alter their operations as a result of the disruptions because they can no longer operate like the normally would, resulting in longer times for supply and demand. Example is that is better now to buy a used car instead of a new car because the parts are not easily accessible for shipping. Shipping times has also been much longer now. “This is the most difficult supply-chain environment that I have ever seen,” AutoZone Inc. Chief Executive Officer William Rhodes said in a September earnings call. AutoZone is running “the lowest level of in-stock that I can ever remember,” said Rhodes, who started his career at the Memphis, Tennessee-based auto-parts retail giant in the 1990s and has been CEO since 2005.”(Sasso, 2021)
Gap
The gap in practice is it created a variety of unexpected risks at the retailer and has started a general rethinking of risk management approaches (e.g. risk balance between suppliers and the retailer) related to operations and supply chain processes (e.g. lean vs buffer). For instance, in hindsight, the approach of supply source diversification was only partially suited to prepare for potential disruptions as the pandemic hit production and logistics activities of suppliers throughout the entire supply base. In many cases, however, risks manifested at bottleneck suppliers. Particularly local food supply chains for fresh produce were heavily disrupted by the inability to recruit migrant workers, such as for harvesting strawberries or asparagus. Furthermore, especially in the trade with other countries, several food products preclude the option of nearshoring for reasons such as climatic conditions, consumer quality requirements, and unwillingness by consumers to pay a premium for higher labor costs.
These developments are challenging conventional knowledge on how to manage supply chain risks and hence call for additional conceptual and empirical work to fill this gap. In procurement, the risk is foremost mitigated through diversification and dual or multiple sourcing strategies, which reduce the reliance on single suppliers (Martínez-de-Albéniz and Wang, 2019). A shift in supply sources, therefore, does not necessarily reduce the overall risk exposure but might only shift and shuffle related risks temporarily. Moreover, established approaches of risk reduction strategies of localized production and consumption, as well as nearshoring (Gerbl et al., 2019), may not reliably reduce disruption risks in situations similar to the current crisis as all places around the world were affected but in unpredictably different ways and times.
“The COVID-19 crisis has raised serious questions on the resilience of global supply chains. More than 80% of organizations did not way the risk and the how they would be negatively impacted by the crisis and a vast majority have struggled with significant challenges across all aspects of the supply chain“(Odgers 2020).
Supporting Evidence
Primary Orientation
This section seeks to review the existing literature surrounding the project plan. The project plan helps identify gaps in practice, conflicts, and open questions from the previous papers. The section will include seven well-synthesized peer-reviewed journal articles from narrow topics from the gap in practices’ point of view. The articles reviewed will be from 2019 up to date to ensure the information offered is current and relevant for the quality of the project.
Efforts to Address the Problem
Xu (2021), in “Impact of COVID-19 on transportation and logistics: a case of China,” examines the Covid-19 burden on the transport and logistics sector in the country. The study combined both primary data and qualitative research design. Data was collected through structured questionnaires and Likert scales and analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). After dividing their transport and logistics into air freight, ocean freight, and land freight, Xu (2021) found that Covid-19 affected air and land freight negatively and significantly. However, the relationship was insignificant for the ocean fight, meaning that covid-19 did not affect ocean transport compared to air and land. This is evident because most governments restricted air and land movements, which many companies mainly use for logistics. You need far more than one source and one paragraph in this section, Please add 3 more sources and information
Synthesis of the Evidence(The word synthesize as applied to a review of the literature is defined as a combining, comparing, and contrasting of findings, theories, themes, gaps, and opinions found in the topical literature and a drawing of new conclusions from the literature. Synthesis occurs through the combining of two or more parts to form a new whole. When you combine the literature through comparative and contrasting content, critically analyze, evaluate, and interpret the combined, compared, and contrasted literature, and write up your critical analysis, evaluation, and interpretation, you create a new whole. In creating a synthetic literature review, your goal is to develop a new, relevant, useful perspective by synthesizing the findings and results of previous researchers. Reflect on the word synergy: the combining of two or more parts, substances, companies to produce a greater effect that the sum of the parts, substances, or companies. As you develop your literature review, you will combine, compare, contrast, analyze, evaluate, and interpret the literature to create a synthetic literature review.
As seen in the reviewed articles, Covid-19 restrictions have disrupted port operations, significant ramifications to business performance. The goal of this literature review was to link port disruptions with global supply chain and business performance. Many businesses depend on port operations for their supplies, meaning that if affected, the entire process is disrupted, hence crippling a country’s economy. Current research supports that port disruptions are critical and require much attention to develop mitigations strategies, like Sudan and Tragger (2021) urge. (This section should be a synthesized review of the literature (about 15 good scholarly sources)
Project Questions
Statement of Primary Question(s) (If you plan to conduct a qualitative inquiry project, you only need one PQ:
Follow this template:
What are the perspectives of ________________(who) regarding ____________________(what; the problem)?
Port disruptions destroyed the global supply chain, which is the heart of many businesses that sought goods or services from the global market. Particularly, Covid-19 restrictions have undermined ports, thus dangerously affecting the global supply chains and business performance. Therefore, this study analyzes the following research question:
• How have port disruptions impacted the supply chain from a global perspective, and to what extent and how?
• What are the effects of global supply chain disruptions on profitability and sales levels?
• What are the mitigation strategies that can be used to control the situation and cushion the world against such a significant impact?
Definition of Terms (please complete based on the paper)
Present a list of terms and definitions that relate to the program, topic, problem, gap, program, and project framework. Suggested length 1-2 paragraphs.
References
Ports and Their Impact on the Global Supply Chain
Cleland, J. A. (2017). The qualitative orientation in medical education research. Korean Journal of Medical Education, 29(2), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2017.53
Kumar Paul, S., Chowdhury, P., Abdul Moktadir, Md., & Hung Lau, K. (2021). Supply chain recovery challenges in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.07.056
Magableh, G. M. (2021). Supply chains and the COVID‐19 pandemic: A Comprehensive framework. European Management Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12449
Notteboom, T., Pallis, T., & Rodrigue, J.-P. (2021). Disruptions and resilience in global container shipping and ports: the COVID-19 pandemic versus the 2008–2009 financial crisis. Maritime Economics & Logistics. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41278-020-00180-5
Prada-Ramallal, G., Roque, F., Herdeiro, M. T., Takkouche, B., & Figueiras, A. (2018). Primary versus secondary source of data in observational studies and heterogeneity in meta-analyses of drug effects: a survey of major medical journals. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0561-3
Sng, B., Yip, C., & Han, N.-L. (2016). Legal and ethical issues in research. Indian Journal of Anaesthesia, 60(9), 684. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5049.190627
Sudan, T., & Taggar, R. (2021). Recovering supply chain disruptions in post-COVID-19 pandemic through transport intelligence and logistics systems: India’s experiences and policy options. Frontiers in Future Transportation, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffutr.2021.660116
Xu, Y., Li, J.-P., Chu, C.-C., & Dinca, G. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on transportation and logistics: a case of China. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2021.1947339
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-16/car-parts-shortages-are-hitting-u-s-garages-creating-weeks-long-delays
Odgers Berndtson, “Is agility the ‘new normal’ for supply chains?” July 23, 2020.
Gerbl, M., McIvor, R. and Humphreys, P. (2016), “Making the business process outsourcing decision: why distance matters”, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 36 No. 9, pp. 1037-1064.
Martínez-de-Albéniz, V. and Wang, J. (2019), “Supply base design for the procurement of multiple items”, Production and Operations Management, Vol. 28 No. 8, pp. 2087-2109.
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