- Select a commodity (any commodity besides cryptocurrency). Describe that commodity.
a. Explain reasons a commodity has historically fluctuated in price.
b. Summarize recent pricing of the commodity (include graphs in Appendix). In addition, provide future possibilities for price fluctuations and why you may/may not anticipate future changes.
i. Explain ways in which managers from various parts of supply chain (Manufacturing, Logistics, Warehousing, and Purchasing) could use the information that you have found/developed/analysed.
c. In your analysis, highlight any other interesting information or implications of your commodity you believe is important to help meet the firm’s operational or strategic goals. Please keep in mind that this is from a purchasing/procurement perspective and would complement the issues outlined in part b, above.
Assessment
- Business-style memo or report*
a. Accurate, thorough and complete collection/display of data. Specifically, produce a report that is suitable for corporate, senior-executive review.
b. An analysis of the commodity’s price variation and implications to the organisation. Please provide good references.
- You are addressing an employer - immediate supervisor, VP of the company, CEO, consultee…your choice
The following may help you direct some of your energy:
• Record price fluctuations.
• Record and explain reasons.
• Examine a small range of commodities.
• Keep up to date. I will randomly ask a couple of students to explain what is happening with their commodity in the context of current events.
• Create executive-presentation quality graphics to communicate price fluctuations and reasons. The spreadsheet should contain date, price, price change from previous recordings, time-series, etc. to complement the written analysis
Sample Solution