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QUESTION
How does Tata Steel manage their logistics and what are the problems faced by them
7BUSS002W Business Research Methods Assignment Brief
The assessment for this module is the summative proposal, with a weighting of 100%. However, you must meet the requirements of the first task below, and it is highly recommended that you take advantage of the second task which has a high correlation with success on the module.
Task 1: submission of project topic. While not assessed, submission is compulsory for the allocation of your supervisor and the submission of the summative proposal.
Task 2: submission of formative proposal. It is not compulsory but crucial to get feedback from your supervisor on the proposal draft, to ensure that you are on the right track.
7BUSS002W BRM module is a prerequisite for the project module and you cannot proceed with 7MNST004W MSc Project module or 7MNST003W MA Project module until you pass the former.
The following graph illustrates the steps:
Proposal
Word count: 3,000 - 3,500 words maximum (excluding references and title page).
Please refer to front inside cover for assessment deadline.
Topic/Title of your Project proposal:
The Project Proposal is based on the research topic you submitted on the Project Topic Form (PTF).
Structure and Contents of your Project Proposal:
The Project Proposal is an outline of your intended Project, providing information on what, why, how conceptually and how practically is your research idea. It will effectively be an introduction, a literature review and will include an outline of your research method/methodology.
The purpose is to show the reader you have managed to arrange your broad Project research ideas into a logical account of research intention; and that these plans are justifiable and achievable. It requires you to think clearly about your research objectives, research methods and relevant literature.
Proposals should comprise the following areas:
- Title
- Introduction/context/research area/main research question
- Literature review
- Research questions/objectives or hypotheses
- Research design (methodology and methods)
- Data collection and analysis
- Conclusion/limitations, including an identification of contingency plans, where relevant; and resource requirements
- Time line/Gantt chart
- WBS student research ethics consideration form (via VRE)
- References
Detailed outline: [1]
- Title of your Project Proposal: Reflect as accurately as possible the content of your proposal
- Introduction to the research: context-background
This section should describe the area you will be investigating and explain the rationale and the context for your research plans. Explain why you are interested in the research topic, and why it is worthwhile. You should provide sufficient background information on the issues you want to research for the reader to be able to understand the rest of your Project as well as its value. If you focus on an organisation you should provide enough organisational information to put your research plans into context.
iii. Review of the literature
This should be presented under a separate heading. Through this review, you show that you have acquired knowledge about the literature that relates to your research area and identify the research/gaps, which your research relates to. It is not intended as a near-finished comprehensive critical analysis of the literature at this stage. In the Project Proposal, provide an identification of themes from academic and other relevant recent and/or historically important literature, which acts as the basis for your intended study and, most importantly, clarify where your intended study fits into this debate.
It is important that you include key relevant literature, with references to key texts and especially refereed journal articles (RJA). Normally we would expect 10-12 references of RJAs at least.
- Specific research questions
Here or at the end of the literature review section, clarify the link between the previous research done in your field of interest, and your research focus.
Specific research questions: this may be one overall question or a number of key questions that the research will address. If suitable, you could add research objectives which make it clear to the reader exactly what is being planned by the proposed research: identifying what is to be analysed, and to what purpose. Your questions and objectives should provide sufficient scope for a project of this size, but also be achievable within the resources available to you. They should not be vague or too general and should be leading to observable outcomes.
The research questions and objectives will be used by the reader to judge the rest of your proposal, so make sure that your proposed research design, data collection and analysis fit with these.
If relevant and suitable, the research questions could be formulated as hypotheses.
Please refer to:
- Punch (2006) for more guidance on hypotheses.
- Blooms’ taxonomy of verbs to identify more ‘masters’ level’ active verbs you
could use as part of your research questions.
- Research design, methodology, and method
This refers to an overall view of the methodology, design and methods chosen to answer your research questions and achieve your research objectives, as well as a justification of these choices.
- Provide information and justification for the methodology and research design you propose. Methodology refers to the broad approach you plan to take – issues such as positivism or interpretivism; inductive or deductive; qualitative or quantitative or mixed methods; etc. You also need to outline and justify your research design: for instance, case study; cross-sectional survey; action research; ethnographic study, etc. If relevant, it should also detail particular areas your research will focus on, such as sectors of industry, regions, organizations and the characteristics of your research population.
- Data/information requirements: Identify from your research questions, objectives or hypothesis, what main data or information you will need to acquire to be able to answer these. If no empirical data is needed, make this clear.
- Data collection and analysis
Provide details of the way in which you intend to collect the data: for instance, investigation of secondary data, interviews, focus groups, observation, document analysis, or a combination, and the way you intend to analyse the data.
It is essential to explain why you have chosen this approach, and reflect upon whether this is the most ‘effective’ way to answer your research questions.
Be as precise as possible. For instance: regarding secondary data, specify the exact data sources you intend to use; for questionnaires specify the distribution, population, sample size, likely response rate; for interviews specify interview population, intended interview duration and way of analysis, etcetera. Refer to ethical good practice such as referring to the use of consent forms and participant info sheets when relevant.
vii. Reflecting on resources
Reflect on data availability and provide clear information on access to the data collected/used. Have you made sure all necessary data is available to you? If relevant, do you have the agreement of essential people to use certain data or conduct interviews? Is your Project agreed with the organisation you focus on if this is necessary? Is your survey response rate likely to be satisfactory?
Reflect on time resources: a rough schedule of the tasks to complete between the submission of the Project Proposal and the submission of the Project, through a GANTT chart.
Other resources you may want to reflect on may include skills or software necessary to collect or analyse data.
viii. Conclusion, limitations, including an identification of contingency plans, where relevant.
Conclusion includes a brief overview of expected outcomes.
If access to (parts of) the data is still uncertain, reflect on possible alternative ways to collect data to answer the research question.
- WBS student research ethics consideration form
Online arrangements for the ethics consideration process for PG students, via the Virtual Research Environment (VRE, part of Intranet). To submit an ethics application, you should:
go to https://research.westminster.ac.uk
click on 'My record' on the right of the homepage
click on 'Ethics' on the right of the record
You will be asked to enter the name of your supervisor when submitting an ethics application. Upon submission, the application is sent to your supervisor. Further information is available on Blackboard.
- List of references
All references should be in Harvard standard, both in text and in the final referencing list.
Checklist
- Appropriate and clear background, context for the research.
- An initial review of literature relevant to the research that places the proposed research into context of work already published.
- Clarification and suitability of research questions, to guide the investigation.
- Outline and justification of research methodology and design appropriate to the proposed Investigation.
- Outline and justification of data required; data collection methods; taking account of ethical considerations.
- Reflection on resources, the likely limitations of the study and determine contingency plans.
- Extent to which all parts of the research proposal fit together.
- Viability of the research proposal: worthy and capable of investigation within the resources and time available.
- Reference according to the Harvard standard, in text and in final list.
- A writing style appropriate for a Master’s level project.
- Ethics consideration confirmation.
The graph below illustrates some key points for each section in your proposal.
[1] The guidance on each element of the structure and content of the project proposal is summarised from Saunders et al. (2016) and Bryman & Bell (2015).
| Subject | Business | Pages | 24 | Style | APA |
|---|
Answer
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF TATA STEEL COMPANY
Table of Contents
1.3 Objectives of the Research. 5
2.2 The Steel Industry and Logistics Challenges. 8
2.3 Tata Steel and Logistics. 10
4 Data Collection and Analysis. 14
The term supply chain management (SCM), according to Prasad et al. (2018), has risen to prominence in the past decades, becoming a hot topic that is hard to pick up an article or periodical on manufacturing, customer management, distribution, marketing, or transportation minus seeing something about SCM-related topics (Debadyuti, 2018; Dahlmann & Roehrich, 2019). One crucial component of SCM, logistics, has long been an area of concern both for academics and practitioners. The professional association for SCM and logistics, the Council of Logistics Management (currently referred to as Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)) hold a yearly conference that usually draws at least 4,000 people. Additionally, every firm currently either sources, sells or competes globally. Thus, SCM represents a key area of focus for most businesses currently. Supply chain and logistics, as Notteboom et al. (2020) note, has the responsibility of ensuring cost effective movement of services and goods from production, planning, and management of warehouse to contractor management and transport operations. Bystrzanowska and Tobiszewski (2018) reason that whatever it takes to realize outstanding on-time delivery performance, a company’s supply chain and logistics function ensure that it is executed effectively and well, implying that supply chain and logistics is a crucial component of maintaining complete customer satisfaction. SCM, therefore, is the active management of a company’s supply chain activities with the aim of maximizing customer value as well as achieving its sustainable competitive advantage. If companies employ SCM, the organization is then capable of functioning at optimum capacity to produce and distribute different materials and products (Bystrzanowska & Tobiszewski, 2018).
Known to many is Tata Steel (Tata Iron and Steel Company - TISCO), a subsidiary of Tata Group, which is an Indian international conglomerate holding firm that has realized success in business as a result of proper logistics services and activities employed. Founded in 1907 by Sir Jamsedji Tata, Tata Steel is owned by Tata sons and is among the fastest growing companies and world leader firm in the steel manufacturing industry (Özcan, Coronado & Harindranath, 2018).currently, Tata Steel is the largest steel company in the United Kingdom (UK) and has continued to grow globally by acquiring other companies: in 2004, it acquired the Singapore based NAT steel for $486.4 million (Tata Steel, 2018) and acquired majority of the Thailand based Millennium steel’s stake for $130 million (Tata Steel Europe, 2018). Additionally, Tata Steel is among the largest steel producers in the world, ranking sixth in the worldwide steel sales (Tata Steel Ijmuiden, 2018).Tata Steel Europe (2018) adds that Tata Steel is among the world’s lowest cost manufacturers. With a supply chain consisting Tata Steel customers, raw materials, manufacturing, individuals, packaging material, packaging, industries distributors and company owned retail outlets, Tata Steel has been successful since it believes in customization of services and products which ought to be based upon customers’ requirement (Tata Steel, 2018). The company makes what they can sell and not sell what they can make. The company serves its customers in various areas, ranging from aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding, power, defense, rail, and engineering among others.
Supply chain and logistics, therefore, is a crucial element in Tata Steel’s process of creating value for ensuring on-time manufacture and delivery of the correct quality of raw materials, services, and other goods to manufacturing destinations, and finished products to consumers/customers. Storage of its finished and semi-finished products is a crucial process with regard to security, timeliness of delivery and preserving quality. With a global presence, a reputable brand image and its influence on almost everyone in the world directly or indirectly, it would be important to study Tata Steel and its logistics activities/processes to know the reasons underlying the company’s success in the business world and the global business landscape.
The aim of this research, therefore, will be to explore how Tata Steel manages their logistics and the problems they face. The research will focus on how Tata Steel carries out its logistics, how they appoint vendors for logistics, how they minimize their freight cost, and how they offer quality services to their customers through logistics, and the problems that they face with their logistical activities.
The objectives of this research will be:
- To explore why SCM is important to a business, especially within the steel manufacturing industry
- To explore how Tata Steel manages their logistics
- To discuss the challenges that Tata Steel faces in their operations, especially with regard to logistics
- To explore the significance of sustainable supply chain in the steel industry
The main research question for this study will be: How does Tata Steel manage their logistics and what problems do they face in their operations?
Other questions will include:
- What are the significance of SCM in a business, especially in the steel manufacturing industry?
- How does Tata Steel manage their logistics?
- What are the challenges that Tata Steel face in their operations, especially with regard to logistics?
- Why is sustainable supply chain important in the steel industry?
SCM has been defined differently yet with almost the same import. According to the University of Kansas School of Business, SCM refers to a set of strategies that are employed to efficiently integrate the flow of finances, materials, and information from manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, and distributors to the ultimate consumers and back again (Debadyuti, 2018). Further, United Kingdom Business School explains that SCM involves integrating and coordinating the above flows both among and within companies with the primary objective of improving the service levels to clients while simultaneously minimizing supply chain costs (Schoon, 2019). SCM process includes every facet of business operations, like purchasing, logistics, and information technology since it integrates suppliers, materials, finances, manufacturing facilities, retailers, wholesalers, and consumers in a seamless system. SCM plays significant roles in a business establishment. Bystrzanowska and Tobiszewski (2018) note that SCM lowers the cost of doing business and provides a way through which a business forms a competitive advantage minus needing to lower its prices while concurrently allowing it to deliver orders faster to their customers. According to the Council of SCM Professionals, SCM is crucial to businesses for a number of reasons: boosting customer service, reducing operating costs, and improving financial position of a company (Díaz, et al., 2015).
Logistics, as alluded to above, plays a crucial part in SCM. It is employed in planning and coordinating the movement of products safely, effectively, and timely (Lv et al., 2020). With the globalization of operations, businesses are being forced to increase their efficiency and maximize their processes because of demanding customers and high competition (Özcan, Coronado & Harindranath, 2018). A study by Prasad et al. (2018) revealed that the fundamental objective of business logistics is to make sure that information, material, and value flow are optimized in a company’s transformation process. The study adds that logistics is crucial for securing a company’s services and products from suppliers to consumers since it includes everything right from acquisition from suppliers and wholesalers to manufacturing, delivery, storage to customers. While there are several definitions of logistics, the most widely accepted and used is that by Council of Logistics Management, which states that logistics is defined as the process of planning, implementing and regulating the cost-effective, efficient flow and storage of in-process inventory, materials, finished goods as well as associated information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the sole purpose of conforming to consumers’ requirements (Notteboom et al., 2020).
Logistics is crucial to organizations in a number of ways. First, it offers an opportunity for organizations to create sustainable competitive advantage for organizations by designing systems which fulfill customers’ requirements better than competition (Díaz, et al., 2015). Secondly, a superior logistics system, as a result of its complexity, is a proprietary asset that can never be duplicated, thus functioning as an effective competition tool (Dahlmann & Roehrich, 2019). Thirdly, logistics creates value for the suppliers and customers of a company and value for a company’s other stakeholders (Macharis & Bernardini, 2015). Thirdly, for multinationals, logistics significantly role plays in globalization. There is a global trend towards integration of world economy. Companies are seeking or have developed world approaches where either their services and products are designed for global marketplaces and they are generated wherever the low-cost components, materials, and labour can be found, or simply locally produce and internationally sell (Debadyuti, 2018). Either way, distribution and supply lines are significantly stretched. Internationalization/globalization of industries everywhere heavily depend upon logistics costs and performance, as firms take more of a global view of their dealings and operations (Pinto & Diemer, 2020). While this is happening, logistics is taking on increased significance in companies due to the fact that logistics costs are becoming crucial components of the total cost structure.
Additionally, logistics is crucial to strategy. Companies spend a fortune of time searching for ways to differentiate their products from their competitors’. When a company’s management appreciates that logistics affects a substantial portion of their company’s costs in addition to the fact that the result of decisions arrived at about the supply chain produces different levels of customer service, the company is in a position of effectively using this information to penetrate new marketplaces, increase their market share, as well as increase their profits (Díaz, et al., 2015). Thus, logistics is important to organization strategy.
The Steel Industry and Logistics Challenges
The global steel, according to the World Steel Association (WSA), has almost tripled in production between 2000 and 2015. Notwithstanding that, as the global population keeps on expanding and countries like India, China, and Malaysia keep developing, additional steel is needed. Pooler and Feng (2017) note that there is a huge demand for steel in high-rise buildings, infrastructure, and mass transit systems, among other areas. Conversely, there is no particular insufficiency of raw materials, making the overall outlook of this industry to be pretty positive.
Looking at the growth of the steel sector, Schoon (2019) notes that most of the extra capacity is emanating from China. Nevertheless, over-capacity criticism is the challenge that is coming after aggressive expansion. Low incentive for efficiency and low steel quality are the two by-products of China’s rapid output and growth in this global trade marketplace (Macharis & Bernardini, 2015). Additionally, over the past few years, China is experiencing a deceleration in its economic growth, implying that we are fundamentally tackling distribution and production challenges.
Secondly, environment regulations are getting stricter and the whole world is requesting for some more comprehensive measure of industrial impacts (Sambrani & Pol, 2016). This entails issues like water use, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, chemical emissions, hazardous emissions and energy use, among many more. Companies are, thus, operating within a more difficult situation and this implies that they expend more time, money, and expertise to ensure that they are compliant to environmental regulations.
Thirdly, there is the problem of SCM and transparency. From a report by WSA, the fact that the prices of raw materials and finished steel are published on a daily basis for various marketplaces around the globe shows that the steel market is transparent. This, as Notteboom et al. (2020) argue, impacts steelmakers’ profitability and also pushes for efficiency. From the IBM Business Services white paper, it is revealed that the transformation agenda of India and Europe are both about planning and visibility (Pooler & Feng, 2017). Nonetheless, they are both experiencing internal resistant to change besides working towards suitable optimization model (Dahlmann & Roehrich, 2019).
As mentioned before, supply chain forms a critical component in the process of value-creation of Tata Steels for ensuring on-time distribution/delivery of the correct quality of raw materials, services, and other goods to manufacturing locations, as well as finished products to the consumers (Özcan, Coronado & Harindranath, 2018). Storage of products, both finished and semi-finished, is a crucial process with regard to timeliness of security, delivery and preserving quality. Tata Steel’s major manufacturing locations are within the eastern parts of India, in Odisha and Jharkhand states, while profit centers, like Wires Division among others, and customer delivery points are located in pan-India (Tata Steel Ijmuiden, 2018). To meet the quality and delivery requirements of customers, the company has steel stockyards and processing centers at strategic locations across India to optimize delivery cost and time (Yanga et al., 2019). The company’s captive iron ore mines as well as collieries are situated at sites around Kalinganagar and Jamshedpur.
Whereas railways, according to Tata Steel Strip MLE (2020), are Tata Steel’s most preferred mode of transportation within India from an environmental viewpoint, it is owned by the Indian government wholly, which allots the wagons various agencies within India. For their raw material segment, Tata Steel totally depends upon the Indian Railways for its inbound transportation. The company has closed-circuit rakes that run between the captive mines, manufacturing locations and ports (Xuan & Jiliang, 2016). Tata Steel is among the first companies in the steel sector to capitalize on incentives by Indian Railways-long-term tariff contract and Special Freight Train Operator (SFTO).
Additionally, India’s road conditions are not very ideal for the transportation of high-end steel products, which according to Pooler and Feng (2017), have to travel up to 1,700 kilometers between pan-India and manufacturing locations. Arab, Masoumi and Barati (2015) note that India’s inland waterways are in their initial phases of development, making it not an open alternative for Tata Steel at the moment despite being the most environmental friendly transportation mode. Thus, the company has been on the move to adopt several modes of transportation, taking the above constraints into consideration, targeting the best possible delivery cost and compliance while taking maximum care of the environment and safety (Arab, Masoumi & Barati, 2015).
In the FY 2017-2018, Tata Steel, as Tata Steel Strip MLE (2020) notes, imported approximately 8.5 million tonnes of coal from North America, New Zealand, and Australia, and 4 million tonnes from Vietnam and Middle East. This implies that Tata Steel plays a crucial role in making sure that there is planning and close coordination between ship owners, overseas miners, port authorities, and load ports in India, the country’s railways as well as its plants receiving the raw materials. Goyal, Routroy and Shah (2018) point out that Tata Steel is among the first steel manufacturers to deploy environmental friendly and energy-efficient vessels for ocean transportation.
With a rising concentration on and attention to environment as well as de-risking its supply chain from ensuing environmental regulation and other climate change risks, Tata Steel is currently enhancing its focus upon Green Supply Chain (GSC) and exploring the third-party logistics concepts, use of newer design eco-friendly and energy-efficient ships, modern state-of-the-art warehouse, and coastal shipping to minimize landslide tonne miles in addition to using digital meals to abridge the cargo flow of raw materials along with other bought-out goods and services (Tata Steel Strip MLE, 2020). Further, Tata Steel ensures the employment of Human Rights across its supply chain. The company has more than 5,000 suppliers and 1,500 local suppliers. The company’s schematic depiction of logistics and supply chain is shown in figure 1 below.
Fig.1 Schematic depiction of Tata Steel’s supply chain
Currently, the steel manufacturing leader, Tata Steel, has an ambitious transformation agenda and is making the optimal use of AIMMS technology to optimize their operations within India. AIMMS is knowhow platform that assists in making high quality decisions with a heightened level of consciousness regarding trade-offs, risks, opportunities, and impact (Xuan & Jiliang, 2016). The technology has two crucial product offerings that offer optimization and modeling capabilities across a variety of sectors (Feta et al., 2018). According to Hadera et al. (2014), Tata Steel is using several AIMMS-based models with the sole intention of improving their operational efficiency, with a concentration in India. The company employs a lot of advanced software to address business needs, but spreadsheets are yet the preferred choice in most of the company’s undertakings (Hadera et al., 2014). Despite the potency of its logistics processes, Tata Steel faces supply chain challenges within the steel industry most of which entail different variables that are hard for the human mind to comprehend. Nonetheless, with AIMMS models’ output, the company can improve its decision-making process. For instance, Tata Steel uses AIMSMS to optimize its production capacity, comprehend which raw material(s) ought to go to which production facility, optimize yields in various plants as well as streamline its logistics.
There are various challenges that Tata Steel is facing in as far as optimization of its SCM is concerned. The company experiences a lack of a common order management system in addition to standardized product definitions as well as absence of comprehensive product costs in the marketplace, leading to delayed production and non-fulfillment of orders (Feta et al., 2018). To solve these challenges, the company requires a tried and assured integrated logistics and supply chain system. This is hinged on the fact that Tata Steel requires an assurance of a securely integrated system for continuous planning and execution throughout production vendors and layers. Among the systems that are being used by Tata Steel is Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tool which assures and manages the company’s software cycle of software chain system integration (Yavas & Ozkan-Ozen, 2020). As a result of using ALM, Tata Steel has been experiencing an enhanced software cycle time, visibility via an enterprise layer and response between systems (Hadera et al., 2014) and this has led the company’s supply chain accuracy to be about 95% (Feta et al., 2018).
This research will employ qualitative research process of case studies. This is backed up by various reasons. The study focuses on Tata Steel’s SCM processes and logistics challenges that they faces as they operate mainly in India. Secondly, SCM is a huge assortment of techniques and this can make the process of selecting supply chain and logistics strategies and factors an intricate one (Macharis & Bernardini, 2015). In a dynamic environment such as that, it is prudent to employ the qualitative research approach (using case studies) to comprehend the Tata Steel situation well (Lv et al., 2020). Additionally, face-to-face meetings with participants can assist by providing crucial information for the researchers’ understanding of the object of the study and information regarding various areas, like reasons behind the employment of certain supply chain and logistics strategies, factors, or tools, customer requirement data, as well as discussions and feedback on questionnaires (Pinto & Diemer, 2020).
The company of interest in this study will be Tata Steel in India. Data for this study will be qualitative and descriptive on strategic practices and approaches employed by Tata Steel in its logistics and supply chain. Data will largely be collected through interviews of people linked to Tata Steel. More data will be acquired through annual reports and form of analysts along with internet resources and literature that will be suggested by the interviewees. Secondary data for this study will be obtained from sources, like annual report, journals, profit and loss account, financial documents of the company, online published documents, and past reports about Tata Steel. Thus, this study will be exploratory in nature.
Both Tata Steel’s former and current employees will be considered for this study, with much focus on the present ones since they are likely to be easily available compared to the former ones. Of Tata Steel’s employees, those belonging to production and manufacturing, supply, global strategy, and/or marketing and distribution divisions will be given priority during the selection of participants for the study. These divisions will be selected because of their relevance to provision of data specific to logistics and supply chain practices and strategies (Yanga et al., 2019). Marketing will also be crucial due to its ability to affect supply chain segments and because Tata Steel is predominantly a marketing propelled company as opposed to a sales propelled one (Goyal, Routroy & Shah, 2018). Senior, middle and junior levels of management will be involved. Management positions will be considered to help understand strategic choices that are made in Tata Steel at micro and macro levels (Liu et al., 2017). This is pegged on the fact that most management choices at macro levels are made by companies’ top management while micro level choices are often directed from middle officers to lower management officers in a multinational (Wei et al., 2019).
Semi-structured interview procedures will be employed during the collection of data from the participants. In a semi-structured method, as Pinto and Diemer (2020) note, a certain set of questions are prepared to direct a session to concentrate upon crucial subject matters of a study. Depending on the answers that will be received from the interviewees, probing questions will follow to elicit extra details that will be specific to the matter under study or to collect details regarding the matter that will be pertinent from literature (Yavas & Ozkan-Ozen, 2020). Probing questions will also be employed to cover specific facets, like criteria for selecting suppliers and nature of contracts usually employed (Schoon, 2019).
Once data will have been collected, the same will be analyzed using the individual case analysis. The individual case analysis approach will isolate logistics and supply chain strategies based upon individual case information/data and identify approaches that produce successful results (Yanga et al., 2019). It will also help the researchers to identify the approaches that will be responsible for the challenges facing Tata Steel presently in as far as supply chain and logistics are concerned (Goyal, Routroy & Shah, 2018). See the Gantt Chart frame for this study in the appendix below.
Several limitations are likely to be experienced during this study. The first one will be attributed to the selected case study technique. According to Wei et al. (2019), the limitations of case study research methodology include: lack of generalization, voluminous documents, and perceived lack of rigor, and subjectivity. This study will be an exploration of Tata Steel with a narrow sample size. Thus, the findings will not be generalizable beyond the context of this research. Liu et al. (2017) opine that for an exploratory research, the objective of a research is to seek greater comprehension that can lead to establishment of a foundation for extra extensive study in the future. Secondly, respondents are likely to shy from participating in the study largely because of the covid-19 pandemic that is currently ravaging lives. Some people will be afraid of appearing for physical meetings for fear of contracting the virus, denying the researchers an opportunity to have one-on-one interviews with the participants. Reaching participants via video conferencing may be hampered by poor connectivity (Wei et al., 2019) while audio interviews will not allow the researchers to learn from the interviewees’ body language, which have been shown to be instrumental in communication (Lv et al., 2020). Additionally, the researchers will possibly shy from giving company information, which are usually confidential for competitive reasons. The inability to travel due to restriction of inter-city movements and lockdowns will possibly make data collection challenging. With these in mind, the quality of data that will be used in this study may be questionable and this may eventually give some false findings.
From this study, it is likely to find out that SCM have become not just questions of efficient and effective logistics processes, but is equally related to the survival and growth of Tata Steel. With consumers becoming extra demanding in their requirements of goods and services from suppliers, the production of an integrated and efficient supply chain has assumed utmost significance. It is also likely to find out that information technology significantly role plays in supply chain creation. Efficient distribution of information downstream and upstream is a crucial requirement for the employment of an effective and efficient supply chain.
References
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Bystrzanowska, M. and Tobiszewski, M. (2018). How can analysts use multicriteria decision analysis? Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 98-105.
Dahlmann, F. and Roehrich, J.K. (2019). Sustainable supply chain management and partner engagement to manage climate change information. Business Strategy and the Environment, 28(8), 1632-1647.
Debadyuti, D. (2018). The impact of Sustainable Supply Chain Management practices on firm performance: Lessons from Indian organizations. Journal of Cleaner Production, 203(1), 179-196.
Díaz, J.T., Contreras, T.V.A., Rojas, M.M., Bolivar, H., Franco, F.C. and González, F.F.J. (2015). Criteria for decision-making in Transportation Logistics Function. International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (p. 7). Dubai: ResearchGate.
Feta, A., van den Broek, M., Crijns-Graus, W. et al. (2018). Technical demand response potentials of the integrated steelmaking site of Tata Steel in IJmuiden. Energy Efficiency, 11, 1211–1225.
Goyal, S., Routroy, S. and Shah, H. (2018). Measuring the environmental sustainability of supply chain for Indian steel industry: A graph theoretic approach. Business Process Management Journal, 24(2), 517-536.
Hadera, H., Harjunkoski, I., Sand, G., Grossmann, I.E. and Engell, S. (2014). Optimization of steel production scheduling with complex time-sensitive electricity cost. Computers and Chemical Engineering, 76, 117–136.
Liu, J., An, R., Xiao, R., Yang, Y., Wang, G. and Wang, Q. (2017). Implications from substance flow analysis, supply chain and supplier’ risk evaluation in iron and steel industry in Mainland China. Resources Policy, 51, 272-282.
Lv, Y., Xiang, S., Zhu, T. and Zhang, S. (2020). Data-Driven Design and Optimization for Smart Logistics Parks: Towards the Sustainable Development of the Steel Industry. Sustainability, 12, 7034.
Macharis, C., & Bernardini, A. (2015). Reviewing the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for the Evaluation of Transport Projects: Time for a Multi-Actor Approach. Transport Policy, 37, 177-186.
Notteboom, T., van der Lugt, L., van Saase, N., Sel, S. & Neyens, K. (2020). The Role of Seaports in Green Supply Chain Management: Initiatives, Attitudes, and Perspectives in Rotterdam, Antwerp, North Sea Port, and Zeebrugge. Sustainability, 12, 1688.
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