Mananza

Operations & Process Management

Week 5 Assignment:

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(1) Understand the competitive force-field:

(a) What is the supply chain in this case?

A definition for a supply network is given by Slack, Chambers and Johnston (1995, Ch. 6); ‘a Supply Network perspective means setting an operation in the context of all the other operations with which it interacts, some of which are its suppliers and its customers’. In the case of Manzana, like many insurance companies, ‘the company did not deal directly with the customers’ (pg. 3). The supply chain for insurance companies is illustrated in the figure below (in the case of Manzana, the illustrated direct linkages between the insurance company and the customer don’t apply).

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The process at operational level is illustrated in Exhibit 2 (including the operating agent), this corresponds to the ‘Insurance company’ box illustrated in the figure above.

(b) Who are Manzana’s stakeholders? What is important for them?

The stakeholders of Manzana’s and their values are summarised below:

|Stakeholder |What is important for them? |

|1. Customers |Cost |

|of insurance products |Dependability |

| |Service |

|2. Employees |Job satisfaction, job security, fair basic salary, good/safe working conditions, personal/career |

|of Manzana |development etc....