Posted: June 18th, 2015

Topic: supply chain and logistics

PROJECT OVERVIEW

 

Supply Chain & Logistics Management

The project should relate to a logistics related topic eg purchasing/outsourcing, material/production control, inventory reduction, material flow, warehousing and distribution, supply chain management or transport planning.

 

 

Project Length

There is no regulation length for a dissertation; normally they would be expected to be at least 10,000 words. However, it is recommended that you aim to produce a work of around 20,000 words. Obviously, dissertations are judged on their quality and not on their length. It should be noted that dissertations that grossly exceed 20,000 words may be penalised for irrelevant content.

 

Project Style

The writing style of your dissertation must be academic, and should include correct English grammar and spelling. In general the third person should be used (though take care to differentiate between what you have done and what has been done by others). The first person singular (I) is seldom if ever appropriate. Please use the Harvard or APA referencing systems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROJECT FORMATTING AND SEQUENCING

 

A4 (297 x 210 mm) paper with : –

 

• one side only and using 1.5 line spacing
• A margin of at least 35mm on the left hand side, 15mm on right hand side. We recommend 25mm top and bottom and that these latter should contain the header and footers.
• Page numbering – WMG recommend Arabic (1,2,3) numbering beginning with the first page of the Introduction. The top outer corner of each page is recommended for the location of the page number.
• The header should contain the chapter heading.
• Character size should be not less than 2.0 mm for capitals and 1.5mm for lower-case. (e.g. 12 point font, ranging from 12 point Times to 12 point Helvetica)
• Each chapter should begin on a new page
• Every figure will have a figure number and title
• Every table will have a table number and title
• Copies must be of good legible quality and margins should allow for photocopying and binding.

 

Note, that you will be required to correct any typographical errors to the satisfaction of your examiners before your dissertation is forwarded for consideration by the Board of Examiners.

 

Dissertation Structure

 

The recommended sequence is as follows:

 

Preliminary pages, consisting of:

 

Title page

Abstract or summary (one separate page)

Acknowledgement

Author’s declaration

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of accompanying material (e.g. software on a disc or CD)

Definitions

 

Body of the dissertation divided into chapters, sections, etc. There is no optimum number of chapters or a maximum or minimum requirement, but the dissertation may comprise:

 

The Introduction Chapter

A Review of Literature

A Research Methodology

The Results Chapter

The Analysis Chapter

The Discussion Chapter

The Conclusions Chapter

The Future Work Chapter

References

Appendices

Glossary (if required)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE INTRODUCTION CHAPTER

 

The INTRODUCTION should capture the reader’s attention and introduce everything you use in the dissertation and later explain. It should not start to discuss the actual research findings so even when you are adding things to it at the end of your project, pretend that you have not yet conducted the study.

 

An examiner will often read the INTRODUCTION (specifically the Objectives) and CONCLUSIONS first and it is worth remembering this when you are writing these chapters. The Introduction Chapter should contain the following:

• Broad view of the context of your study
• Broad view of the general research area – you are trying to demonstrate how important this general area of research is to the world.
• Explanation of how your research fits into this broad area – now you are trying to demonstrate how your research is going to contribute to this general area.
• The research questions or hypotheses and the specific objectives of your research –under a separate sub-heading so that they stand out to the reader (and examiner).
• Guide to the subsequent chapters – 3 or 4 paragraphs explaining the content and reasons for including each chapter. These paragraphs must explain why your dissertation includes certain chapters, not what chapters are included. Some students have shown these on a flow chart or diagram.

 

• The introduction is not a literature review, and references should be used sparingly.
• Start as you mean to continue. Make sure your headings and sub-headings are specific, informative, and relevant, and guide the reader through the story you are telling.
• Do not include irrelevant information and sections that you will not make any use of later in the projection (e.g. a history of supply chain from ancient times).
• It is a very good idea to design a flow-chart or map that you can refer to throughout your project.
• It is a very good idea also to design a time management schedule.

 

As you develop the introduction, you will of course be consulting literature and sources to get a good, overall understanding of your chosen research area. As you write your introduction, make sure you clearly describe:

 

The intended outcome of your project (e.g. a series of recommendations, a new model of practice, a new framework etc.).

 

The value of this outcome in terms of what it will provide and who it will be useful to. Remember that the WMG project is not only an academic piece of work, it is also intended to be a practical piece of work.

 

Since your outcome will be developed from your research, you should then lay out your research objectives / sub-objectives / questions. This might be limited to one major research objective from which you derive sub-objectives. Or it might consist of a small number of separate research objectives that look at different features or aspects of your topic with a view to bringing them together to develop the outcomes.

 

Make sure that you consider the practicalities as you develop these objectives. Will you be able to access the data you need? How long will it take? How will you know that the data will be valid? Are the objectives sufficiently narrowed and specified? If you are too ambitious you will find yourself with too much material to manage, and your work may lose depth. Remember that all the following chapters of the project will be built around these objectives. You must not lose sight of them.

 

Follow-Up Tasks

 

• Map / Flow-Chart Design
• Time Management Schedule
• Key terms (these might also be included in the introduction as a section)
• Looking at and analyzing sample thesis introductions
• Writing provisional headings and sub-headings for your introduction chapter
• Writing your proposal

 

TIME MANAGEMENT SCHEDULE

 

Name
Student Number
Degree
Project Topic
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC

 

KEY DATES:

 

 

 

PROJECT PLANNING FORM

 

Name
Student Number
Degree
Project Topic
Application / Outcome
Objectives
Significance / Value
Methodology and Approach
Resources

 

Literature Review Section

 

Having stated your project objectives, it is now necessary to gather all the information required to satisfy them. This is achieved by reviewing existing literature, focused on your research area.   If your project involves gathering some primary data, you may find that this data when analysed changes the focus of your project and you need to return to the literature to find other research that supports or disagrees with your findings (triangulation).

 

Your review of the literature should not be just a summary of the articles that you have read; your work should be critical and analytical. Ask yourself (and attempt to answer) questions such as:

 

How does this article relate to my project objectives and can I use it to develop my theories/hypotheses? You should then explain in the dissertation, how you intend to use this information.

 

How does this article relate to what I already know about the subject and how does it compare with that written on the same topic by other authors? Again, you should explain in the dissertation how this information agrees (or disagrees) with other published work.

Try to combine/compare/contrast the ideas and views from different authors – don’t just repeat what one author says, then follow it with a summary of the work of another author.

 

Hence the literature review is not a separate part of the project where you simply show off the fact that you have read about the subject but an integral part of the story you are telling.

 

Start the chapter (and indeed every chapter) with a brief summary of the aims and intended outcomes of the chapter.

 

Map out your headings and sub-headings in relation to your project objectives and intended project outcomes.

 

As you work through the project, go from broad to narrow in each case.

 

Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a critical review. Do not just repeat what others have said in the field. Your job here is to categorize, comment, evaluate, criticize, and synthesise, and relate the findings to your own research objectives.

 

Keep your references in order as you proceed through the chapter, and only use quotations if there is very good reason. WMG do not give credit in the assessment to quotations. This means that you will mostly be paraphrasing. Remember that a paraphrase requires summarizing other people’s ideas entirely in your own words.

 

Finish the chapter with a detailed conclusion summarizing your findings and showing how these findings will be used in the following chapters; this may involve the use of some kind of illustrative graphic.

 

Make your best effort to use a variety of up-to-date (refereed) article references and avoid over-reliance on single sources.

 

If you are using literature, including journals, newspapers, company literature etc. as sources for a study based on secondary data, or using documentary sources for data, do not confuse the reader by incorporating them into the literature review. The literature review is a survey of previous academic work and research in the areas related to your project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LITERATURE REVIEW PLANNING FORM

 

Name
Student Number
Degree
Project Topic
Purpose and Intended Outcome of Review
Key Terms and Search Terms
Likely Headings and Sub-Headings
Key Models and Frameworks
Key Sources

RESEARCH METHODS PLANNING

 

 

Research Methodology

 

If you answer the following questions you should have described your research methodology.

 

What was the research subject?

What was the research question and how was it generated?

What were the intended purpose, process, logic and outcome?

 

This section of your dissertation seeks to explain to the reader the rationale for the way in which the research was conducted. In particular, to provide the answers to the following questions:

 

What was the underlying research paradigm or philosophy?

What research methods were used?

How was the data gathered?

How was the data analysed?

 

You may wish also to discuss constraints and limitations and show why you chose certain methods as opposed to other possible methods.

 

Again make sure the chapter has a proper introduction and conclusion.

 

Do not write a lengthy essay on research methods in general. Your job is to select appropriate, valid, and practical methods for your research and justify them.

 

As you make these selections do check relevant sources and read about how to use the methods and accompanying tools to good effect, and consider their advantages and disadvantages.

 

Consider also how you can use use multiple tools to cross-validate the findings (triangulation)

 

Remember that there is an ethics form on the WMG-EMU web-site that will need to be completed with your supervisor, and you are advised to include a section on ethics in your research methods chapter. Hence this is another topic that you should read a little about.

 

Follow Up Tasks

 

Briefly prepare a short presentation on one or more of the following areas:

 

Research Ethics

Quantitative approaches

Qualitative approaches

Comparative research

Primary Data

Secondary Data

Questionnaires

Interviews

Documentary Evidence

Sampling

Statistical programmes used in research

Case Studies

Waves of research (unfolding research)

Research gap

Research question

Hypothesis driven research

Phenomenological research

Research validity

Ethnographic research

Experimental research

 

RESEARCH METHODS PLANNING FORM

 

Name
Student Number
Degree
Project Topic
Your Research Objectives
The Intended Outcomes of Your Research
The Methods and Tools you intend to use and how.   Try and justify these and show how they will be used.
Try and show a realistic time scale for the implementation of the research

 

PROJECT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

 

Again start your chapter with a proper introduction.

 

How the chapter proceeds will obviously depend on the nature of your work. But in any case, the purpose of this chapter is to present your results and discuss and interpret your data in relation to your objectives. You may have acquired a great deal of data in your research that is of interest, or just happens to be in your hands. However, do not go off the point. Stick to the data that is relevant to your selected themes and objectives.

 

In a study with a lot of quantitative data, provide a clear presentation of the results. You will start with a description of your unit of analysis and sample and the presentation of the data will involve a lot of tables and charts. In a phenomenological study it may not be possible to separate the results from the analysis and the aim will be to make sense of the data used, so diagrams and illustrations may help.

 

Analysis is the process of presenting and interpreting data. Qualitative data (non-numeric data) is generally achieved by reducing the data and structuring it. Quantitative data analysis is based on applied mathematics and uses standard statistical methods.

 

QUALITATIVE DATA

For qualitative data, it is a progression from the raw data (Results) to an explanation, understanding and interpretation of the replies and opinions that have been gathered. You may be trying to illustrate some or all of the following:

 

• An individual’s understanding of a subject,
• Why this point of view has occurred,
• What led to this view being adopted,
• The individual’s involvement with the subject,
• How the view was communicated,
• The individual’s understanding of other peoples’ point of view.

Common features of analytic methods include:

 

• Affixing codes to a set of field notes drawn from data collection
• Noting reflections or other remarks in margin
• Sorting or shifting through the materials to identify similar phrases, relationships between themes, distinct differences between subgroups and common sequences
• Isolating patterns and processes, commonalties and differences, and taking them out to the field in the next wave of data collection
• Gradually elaborating a small set of generalisations that cover the patterns seen in the data base
• Confronting those generalisations with a formalised body of knowledge in the form of constructs or theories (e.g. referring back to the literature review).
• One approach open to the researcher is to quantify the data – convert qualitative, text based data into numeric data. In some cases, this may enable some statistical analysis to be carried out if required.

 

Whatever technique or combination of techniques is used to analyse this rich, informative, but essentially cumbersome data, the researcher should bear in mind that good research requires that a logical, systematic and robust approach be taken to the treatment of the data, and one which is transparent to the reader.

 

QUANTITATIVE DATA

1. a) Descriptive Statistics

Your research may generate a large quantity of data – a questionnaire comprising 30 questions, completed by 100 people will generate 3000 items of raw data. This will need to be organised and summarised, so that anyone reading it can understand what the data is showing. Descriptive or summary statistics (including ‘measures of central tendency ‘ and ‘measures of dispersion’) are frequently used to describe and/or summarise data.

 

1. b) Inferential Statistics

This infers the beliefs of the population from a knowledge of the beliefs of a sample. Usually it is not practical to interview the entire population.

 

For this, the sample must be representative of the population, and you must justify the selection of your sample group. However, the sample is still unlikely to truly reflect the beliefs of population in all aspects. This uncertainty can be quantified by statistical methods and needs to be recorded in your dissertation..

 

Discussion

 

You will need to remind the reader of the purpose of the research and the research questions from the introduction and discuss how the research has or has not answered the research questions. Remember this is the chapter where you have most opportunity to demonstrate your intellectual skills. You need to be self-critical so consider how reliable and valid the findings are. What have you learnt from doing the research and what would you do differently if you could repeat it? Can you really generalise about the population based on the data that you have gathered from your sample? Have you made any sweeping statements or exaggerated claims that could be challenged in your oral presentation? The chapter should have the following sections (based on Rudestam and Newton, 1992 p. 121): –

 

• An overview of the significant findings of the study
• A consideration of the findings in light of existing research studies
• A careful examination of findings that fail to support or only partially support your hypotheses
• Limitations of the study that may affect the validity or generalisation of the results
• Recommendations for further research

 

It may also be in this chapter, or possibly in an additional following chapter that you present the outcomes of your project, in terms, for example, of a new model, framework, set of recommendations etc.

 

ENVISIONING YOUR RESULTS CHAPTER

 

It is probably a good idea while planning to envision the kinds of results that might emerge from your study and what might you use them for; after all it is unlikely – even though you do not have any data yet – that you have absolutely no idea at all what you are likely to discover and what you will do with those discoveries when you make them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENVISIONING THE RESULTS

 

Name
Student Number
Degree
Project Topic
Your Research Objectives
The Intended Outcomes of Your Research
Your expectations about the most significant findings you are likely to make.
How do you think you might use those findings in terms of formulating a practical outcome?

 

CONCLUSION CHAPTER

 

Remember that most examiners read this chapter after the INTRODUCTION so check that your CONCLUSIONS show that the OBJECTIVES have been achieved or if it not, explain why not. Try to use some of the same key words or phrases from the OBJECTIVES to show consistency. It should start with the focus on your study and broaden out to discuss the implications for this research area and for future research. The main challenge in the conclusions is to give a summary whilst avoiding too much repetition and bullet points can be very useful. In the analysis section you may have identified areas for further research but in the conclusions you could give a little detail on the possible research methodology that could be adopted. Hussey and Hussey (1997 p. 293) give the following suggestions on content: –

 

• Refer to the OBJECTIVES
• Summarise the main points from the results and show how they address your research questions
• Give guidance of the implications of your research – who might be affected by your findings and what might the affect be?
• Do not offer new opinions – these should have been introduced in the Discussion and Analysis chapters.
• Identify the weaknesses in your research and the limitations of your study
• Suggest what future research might be conducted and how your study helps
• As with the beginning of the dissertation, try to write a convincing ending.

 

When considering what the implications of your research are, Greenfield (1996 p. 11) suggests the following possibilities: –

 

• You may have filled a gap in the literature.
• You may have produced a solution to an identified problem in the field. (Writing a new software programme might help solve a particular problem.)
• Your results may challenge accepted ideas in the field (some earlier statements in the literature may seem less plausible in light of your findings).
• Some earlier statements in the literature may seem more plausible in the light of your findings.
• Your work may help to clarify and specify the precise areas in which existing ideas apply and where they do not apply.
• Your results may suggest a synthesis of existing ideas. (A literature-based project can contribute by providing a comparison of previous research.)
• You may provide a new perspective on existing ideas in the field.
• Your results may suggest new ideas, perhaps new lines of investigation.
• You may have generated some new (research) questions in the field.
• Your work may suggest new methods for researching your topic.

 

Future Work

 

This section should not be used to present a list of activities that time did not permit you to execute. The purpose of this chapter is to enable the field of research to progress, so that any new research project can build on the ideas and concepts of what has gone before. Having completed the research and knowing what you now know, if you had the time and resources to start a new research project in the same area, what would you do? What further questions have been raised as a result of your research and what are the next steps? You may not necessarily be the one to do this research, but by identifying what direction the research could take, you may enable others to do so.

 

Appendices

 

All appendix material must be referred to in the main body of the dissertation or it will be ignored. Appendices can become a dumping ground for material that you cannot fit into the dissertation. Remember it is quality not quantity that counts! They can be useful for information that is too detailed or not sufficiently relevant for the main dissertation.

 

If the research involved gathering primary data the APPENDICES often contain a copy of the interview or postal/e-mail questionnaire (the data collection instrument), the raw data collected such as transcript of a face-to-face interview or a listing of the computer software.

 

 

 

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