During these
past 13 weeks of last semester, this course “Workshops on Logistics and Supply Chain Management” exposed me a big
picture on the
major operations and logistics challenges faced in implementing an integrated supply
chain management strategy. The course design consisted of case studies analysis
to demonstrate the real-world problems in supply chain management, such as upcoming
regulatory changes relating to China’s accession into the WTO and the
elimination of textile quotas of TAL apparel Limited, citizens' hesitancy on e-tailing
of Seven-Eleven Japan, and also FedEx’s
structural transformation through e-business. Through in-class discussion sharing, our ideas can be brainstormed
and synthesized in collaborative team works, in order to find solutions and
make suggestions to the problem. Moreover, our findings can be shared among
groups via informal presentation and further received meaningful feedback by
lecturer and classmates.
Apart from in-class activities, the lecturer
usually organized some out-of-class company visits for broadening students’
business horizon, including TAL, Hactl, Kerry Logistics, Yakult and HIT. In
preparation for the company visit, we were required to conduct research on the
background of the company and relevant information about the industry, so as to
list out the corresponding questions asked during the company visits, for
instance, logistics operations management, future development and industry
trends.
On site, I can observe the best industry practices and recent
developments in information technology related to logistics and supply chain
management. One example that deserves a mention is the visit of control tower in
HIT. We took a glance at the IT demonstration of Terminal Management System,
like Operations Monitoring System (OMS), which provides a detailed overview of
terminal operations, together with Closed-Circuit Television System (CCTV) and
trunk radio systems. As a result, it displayed how HIT becomes a pinnacle of
industry excellence by consolidating modern management techniques, cutting-edge
computer systems and award winning IT applications on port operations.
Besides, we can
communicate to the guide instantly and interactively concerning the inquiries
on company’s operational issues. These on-the-spot visits established my
passion to examine the allocation of resources and best industry practices of
logistics management. Afterwards, we had to compile the post-visit reports and
learning portfolio Wiki that logs the learning processes,
methodologies, visit questions and research outcomes, which all related to our
practical experience to the theoretical concepts learned in the course.
For
my own reflection, I recognized the teaching enthusiasm of our lecturer to this
course. Instead of bored in-class lectures and theories from textbook, Ms Sandy Wong paid particular attention to conduct an interactive
and comprehensive learning atmosphere during the class, such as giving helpful
recommendations to our findings and organizing attentive company visits for
students, providing fair chance to each student for sharing their views. Without
final examination, the overall workload of this course is not heavy as much. To
summarize, I really enjoy participating the workshop activities and learn
in-depth knowledge in the field of supply chain management during the course.
