BUS 430: Introduction to Supply Chain

Week 1 Discussion

Introduce yourself to your peers by sharing something unique about your background. Explain how you expect this course will help you move forward in your current or future career.

From the Zappos articles, evaluate the different way(s) that Zappos creates a superior customer service experience. Describe how operations and management activities impact the management of goods and services that Zappos provides.

Compare the customer service experience at Zappos with the service provided at a store you shop from often, and highlight the differences in how the customer service is best delivered.

Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.

Week 2 Discussion 

Please view, read, and comprehend the Goods vs. Services Continuum [PDF] and then use it to respond to the following:

• Choose two companies with which you are familiar.
• Describe the good or service offered by each of the two companies you chose.
• Using the numbers 1 through 7 on the infographic, determine where each of these two companies falls on the Goods vs. Services continuum, and justify why you think each company fits in the areas you selected.
• Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.

Week 3 Discussion 

Please respond to the following:

• Examine the role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in business. Determine how CRM systems can play a critical role in managing value chains.
• How does LaRosa’s Pizzeria use this technology in order to improve the supply chain and value chain operations? Determine the ways this technology has helped to deliver quality to the customer. Assess the challenges that LaRosa’s Pizzeria might face when trying to implement these types of technologies.
• Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.