Joint Student Project

Global Supply Chain Management in the
Automotive Industry

Joint Project Report - 11/17/03
Project Schedule

  1. Pre-Project Week: Project Objectives
    1. This phase established the rules that directed our project.
    2. The project entailed setting up two virtual companies one called MoreCar and the other M3. MoreCar functioned as an automobile manufacturer. M3 functioned as a supplier of automobile engines to MoreCar.
    3. We had issues with setting up logins and passwords on the IT Forum, understanding the functionality of the IT Forum and not being able to share documents as attachments using the IT Forum
    4. MoreCar’s Mission statement and Team Roles document
    5. M3’s Mission statement
    6. M3’s Team Roles document, also shows MoreCar’s Roles
    7. Instructions for the IT Forum
  2. Week 1: Setting up The Project
    1. In this phase we sought to become familiar with the IT Forum and started to work on a letter of understanding.
    2. We made the following observations:
      1. Both teams were able to put together the team roles document and a mission statement and they got started on a letter of understanding. However, due to communication issues the documents were not exchanged in a timely manner.
      2. An environment that was accessible to both teams for example groups.yahoo.com, groups.yahoo.de, rather than the IT Forum would have been helpful to this phase.
    3. We did fill out a survey and users had to be reminded to complete the survey in a timely manner but in subsequent weeks timely participation was much improved.
    4. The IT Forum
  3. Week 2: Letter of Understanding
    1. In this phase we sought to agree on a letter of understanding. This letter of understanding was intended to be shared and exchanged between MoreCar and M3 as it was being developed. However the teams worked largely independently and so we ended up with two letters of understanding.
    2. If we had used something similar to Yahoo Groups we could have also used the Yahoo Messenger to perform group chats live interactively between the MoreCar and M3 team members.
    3. Another option would have been to set up a web camera where the two groups could have interacted live in the classroom and via the internet.
    4. The MoreCar Letter of Understanding
    5. The M3 Letter of Understanding
  4. Week 3: Business Rules
    1. We tried to develop business rules that would establish a business relationship and the details of the transactions between the MoreCar and M3 teams.
    2. The two teams went about this phase in a very different way. The MoreCar team prepared a document which was a list of business rules. The M3 team used a more formal approach based on object oriented sequence diagrams to describe the business processes.
    3. As noted earlier because of communication limitations in the end the MoreCar and M3 teams ended up with two sets of documents describing the business layer function.
    4. The M3 team did an excellent job of putting together a formal document using object oriented methodologies in an effort to describe the business interaction and the technical functionality expected of the interface between the MoreCar and M3 teams.  Unfortunately, the MoreCar team had trouble understanding or interpreting the M3 sequence diagrams. The MoreCar team would have needed a stronger foundation in system design and analysis methods to fully appreciate the quality of the work the M3 team produced in describing the intended business rules provided by M3.
    5. The M3 team suggested that the teams use the framework provided by Patricia Moddy’s Breakthrough Partnering.  For example the emphasis on quality, communication, trust, flexibility, anticipatory participation, etc.  As anticipated by the framework the communications between the teams proved to be the area needing the most attention.  Closer collaboration between the teams would have allowed for a stronger interaction between the MoreCar and M3 teams.
    6. The M3 team was gracious in reverting to business rules document prepared by MoreCar and responding and help improve on it.
    7. MoreCar Business Rules, after the collaboration with M3
    8. M3 Business Rules
  5. Week 4: Technical Implementation
    1. In this phase we sought to develop an understanding and identify the technical resources needed to implement the business rules discussed in the previous week.
    2. The MoreCar team realized that the business rules that had been put together the week before would have required a great deal more time and resources than were available.
    3. In the end MoreCar put together a prototype web site with links to a mysql database that implemented a purchase order issuance and a shipping function. MoreCar developed this functionality independently and without close consultation with M3. This lack of interaction could have been pre-empted with closer or better communication between the teams.
    4. MoreCar and M3 were able to build a prototype order entry and shipments website.  This prototype incorporated in a rough form the anticipated interaction between MoreCar and M3.  The implementation was limited due to constraints of time.  Hopefully M3 will be able to improve and enhance this early prototype.
    5. Proposed data schema prepared by M3
    6. Document showing the relationship between the business rules and the technical implementation.
  6. Week 5: Conclusions
    1. Our purpose here was to agree on a joint final project report and presentation.
    2. As a first step we sought to put together all the documents that were created in the course of this project.  A link to this collection is available here.
    3. The limited communication between the teams has hampered this effort. In order to help bring the project to a satisfactory close we have developed this document with links to all the important documents developed in the course of the project.
    4. Overall the objectives of the collaboration were achieved but only in a qualified way. The next version or the next attempt at collaboration probably would benefit from a better means of communication and interaction between the MoreCar and M3 teams.
    5. Survey Results: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 1 & Week 5 Compared.