1 Group Discussions Guidelines Group discussions should be submitted before the deadline every Wednesday with no exceptions. There is a group discussion page in every PDF in the weekly folder in Canvas where group discussion questions are shown. Please discuss these questions with your groupmates then write it up in Canvas to turn it in. Please do NOT attach files. When a grade is given, everyone in the group receives the same grade. Group may choose to answer additional questions or comment on the course materials, in addition to the required answers. Guidelines (grading rubric is in the end of this document):  Groups consist of 4 or 5 members. Please self organize into groups in Canvas. I do not assign students into groups.  Group members should be as diverse as possible so that exposures to people who are very different than you can be maximized for learning purposes.  Group members should meet on- and/or off-line to complete group discussions together, rather than members divide and conquer the workload.  All primary and follow-up questions must be answered in full, with references to online resources or class lectures/materials when necessary.  There should be a group consensus reached in the end of each question. If differences still exist, lay out both sides of the argument.  Copying/pasting other people’s work without citing sources or receiving assistance from other people is considered to be plagiarism and will result in a failing grade for the entire group. Such violation of academic integrity will be reported to the University.  Groups should have a mechanism in place to ensure successful, timely submissions. No late assignments will be accepted, no matter what the reason is and who is at fault. Example (word count, research done well, relate to questions, complete story): Group 8 Participating members: Ann Droid, Ira Oas, Sam Sung, Hua Wei Question: What are the global supply chain activities involved in our examples of t‐shirts, iPhones, and bananas? Please also explain one of the driving forces of the global supply chain with examples. Globalization offers companies opportunities to simultaneously increase revenues and decrease costs. To use the T-Shirt example described as “The world behind a simple shirt” in NPR short video, we explore the activities involved with raw materials (Cotton), supplier (Machines), manufacturing (People), distribution (Boxes) and customer (You) in the global supply chain. The T-shirt global supply chain activities start with the raw materials, mostly cotton grows in Mississippi cotton farm in the US or other countries near the manufacturing. The U.S. exports more cotton than any country in the world because their quality (color measure is high), price and mass supply are very competitive and steady. In the video, for example, the farm produced 13,000 bales of cotton, the equivalent of 9.4 million T-shirts, in 2013. The second activity, the spinning yar ...

1. 1
Group Discussions Guidelines
Group discussions should be submitted before the deadline
every Wednesday with no
exceptions. There is a group discussion page in every PDF in
the weekly folder in Canvas where
group discussion questions are shown. Please discuss these
questions with your groupmates then
write it up in Canvas to turn it in. Please do NOT attach files.
When a grade is given, everyone in
the group receives the same grade. Group may choose to answ er
additional questions or
comment on the course materials, in addition to the required
answers.
Guidelines (grading rubric is in the end of this document):
groups in Canvas. I do not
assign students into groups.
exposures to people who are very
different than you can be maximized for learning purposes.
- and/or off-line to complete
group discussions together,
rather than members divide and conquer the workload.
-up questions must be answered in
full, with references to online

2. resources or class lectures/materials when necessary.
end of each
question. If differences still
exist, lay out both sides of the argument.
or receiving assistance from
other people is considered to be plagiarism and will result in a
failing grade for the entire
group. Such violation of academic integrity will be reported to
the University.
successful, timely submissions. No
late assignments will be accepted, no matter what the reason is
and who is at fault.
Example (word count, research done well, relate to questions,
complete story):
Group 8
Participating members: Ann Droid, Ira Oas, Sam Sung, Hua Wei
Question: What are the global supply chain activities involved
in our examples of t‐ shirts,
iPhones, and bananas? Please also explain one of the driving
forces of the global supply chain
with examples.
Globalization offers companies opportunities to simultaneously
increase revenues and decrease
costs. To use the T-Shirt example described as “The world
behind a simple shirt” in NPR short

3. video, we explore the activities involved with raw materials
(Cotton), supplier (Machines),
manufacturing (People), distribution (Boxes) and customer
(You) in the global supply chain.
The T-shirt global supply chain activities start with the raw
materials, mostly cotton grows in
Mississippi cotton farm in the US or other countries near the
manufacturing. The U.S. exports
more cotton than any country in the world because their quality
(color measure is high), price
and mass supply are very competitive and steady. In the video,
for example, the farm produced
13,000 bales of cotton, the equivalent of 9.4 million T-shirts, in
2013.
The second activity, the spinning yarn and thread are made in
the Indonesia yarn house where
they are provide all standardized size of fibers to satisfy with
the T-shirt company’s designs.
Though spinning yarn is high tech and shockingly complex, it
can be standardized to make yarn
with incredible precision and consistency, 24 hours a day, 361
days a year.
2
The next activity of manufacturing the T-Shirt happens in
Bangladesh and Columbia. The buyer,
Jockey of the T-Shirt line said “there’s no country that’s ready
to replace Bangladesh as the
cheapest place in the world to make clothes.” Nearly 19% of
their population (4 million) work
for the garment industry, with an average monthly wage of $80

4. and long working hours.
With the activity of distribution (BOXES), the T-Shirts Line
company’s get their final products
ready to ship by transporting from truck and ocean freight
traveling around the world. When the
goods unload from the destination ports, the local shipping
company will transport the goods to
the customer’s warehouses or distribution centers.
As a consumer to receive or buy the T-shirt, we are the last
activity from this supply chain
activities.
As we perceived the t-shirt line supply chain in this video, a
single T-shirt might start as US
cotton, then travel to Indonesia, Bangladesh and back to the
U.S., all for far less than a dollar in
shipping costs. Thus, Supercheap transportation costs plays a
key role that apparel companies
went from making clothes in one place to managing global
supply chains.
One of the driving forces of the supply chain is technology
(knowledge and technology flows).
With the advancement of technology, we have been able to
transform the supply chain almost
overnight. With technology advancements, we’ve seen greater
transparency across supply chains
from more accurate forecasting, better communication overall
across functions, and even the
ability to view your bring your full business together. Lastly,
technology has made it possible for
so much more innovation. Besides transparency and some of the
basic functions that technology
enhances in the supply chain, it also makes way for automation

5. and robotics to make the supply
chain leaner and “invisible”. It also makes way for sleeker on-
demand delivery which has been
something that has completely transformed the supply chain in
the past few years- such as Zara,
Fashionnova in fast fashion, and Amazon in making sure that
the customer gets their products
the next day by storing merchant inventory so that it's easy and
fast to deliver.
Another driving force of global supply chain is “Global Market
Forces” as international product
life cycle, demand for foreign products, multinomials for
growth overseas.
Considering Apple’s iPhone for example, the value chain chart
shows Apple has built a global
manufacturing and engineering infrastructure with facilities in
California for product design and
marketing and service. Also, their R&D is in Germany; Material
and parts procurement is in S.
Korean and Taiwan; assembly is in China and Distribution is in
Japan. This network allows
Apple to introduce new products simultaneously in the
American, European and Asian markets.
Companies use the state-of-the-art markets as learning grounds
for product development, IP
management, effective production management, and then
transfer this knowledge to their other
production facilities worldwide. With the integration of product
design and the development of
related manufacturing processes, they become the key success
factors, where fast product
introduction and extensive customization determine market
success.

6. This logic also brings out another example of why BMW built
assembly facility in the US,
located in Greer, South Carolina. The company recognizes that
the United States is a large
market for its line up of cars and sport utility vehicles. In 2020,
BMW is the 15th highest selling
brands in the US. Its manufacturing facilities in the U.S. allows
them to offer American car
buyers a speedier delivery and its parent company more
resistance to fluctuations and risks in
foreign exchange and customs duties.
References:
3
NPR “The world behind a simple shirt.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_supply_chain_managem
ent
https://www.obs-logistics.com/blog/how-technology-changed-
supply-chain
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-
insights/three-game-changing-
supply-chain-technologies
https://iimm.org/globalization-and-its-effect-on-supply-chain-
management/
Grading Rubric:

7. Service Design
It’s the activity of planning and organizing a
business's resources (people, equipment, and
processes) in order to improve its quality and
enhance the customer experience.
environment in which a service occurs. I mean everything
involved in the service delivery. Also called service setting.
-contact
service means you offer customers a lot of hand-holding
and direct support, while low-contact service means you
give them tools to sort things out for themselves. If you
can get business done without talking to a store employee,
it’s low contact.
Servicescape
Servicescape: reception area, certificates on the wall,
relaxing music, color scheme, lighting, white robes, gloves
Starbucks Store Design
“What you don’t want is a customer walking into a store in
downtown Seattle, walking into a store in the suburbs of
Seattle, and then going into a store in San Jose and seeing
the same store.
Starbucks’s current mission is to create “sustainably designed,
locally relevant stores that inspire and nurture the human spirit
one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”

8. “It’s all about us meeting our customers where they are in their
day.”
I think we have managed to, with a simple cup of coffee and a
very unique experience, enhance the lives of millions of
people by re-creating a sense of community, by bringing
people together and recognizing the importance of place in
people’s lives.
High vs. Low Contact System
High contact: a greater level of interaction exists
between service providers and customers, such as
health care, hotels, public transportation, some retailers,
and schools. High contact allows a greater degree of
customization of the service delivered to individuals.
Low contact: there is a low level of direct contact with
customers, such as coin laundry, mail box rentals,
medical test labs, and some retailers. Work is more
standardized and completed in an assembly line fashion.
One question to ask:
Can a customer complete a purchase with minimum
contact with employees? If yes, then it’s low contact.
High vs. Low Contact System
High & Low contact: The higher the contact, the more
expensive it is and the more customized it can be.
High vs. Low Contact System
How to use low contact service to give customer a high

9. contact feeling? Takashimaya vs. Amazon Go.
Service Design
It All Started with a Stupid Question…
Think about this
stupid idea of
putting people on
the conveyor belt…
and why not?
Service Design: the Idea
Airlines Luggage Handling
Basic idea and process:
It’s a small observation. Then someone at the airline asked a
question why do WE handle the bags, rather than asking
passengers to carry them on board? Airlines started to charge
bag fees at $20 or $25 a piece. Before we knew it, $5.8
Billion dollars were collected in 2019!
Service Design: Healthcare
medical service providers are separated

10. physically.
providers together.
The health care industries face similar
challenges of airport luggage handling. How
do you bring people and medical service
providers together when people are sick?
Service Design: Healthcare
Several solutions are present to bring people
and doctors together:
in-home care, midwife
pharmacies, labs, hospitals…
in one “department store”
Service Design: Restaurants
gry…people
and food are separated physically.
together.

11. The food and restaurant industries face
similar challenges of airport luggage
handling. How do you bring food and
people together when people are
hungry?
Service Design: Problem and
Solution
s
want to be united with food
-house: go to market, buy raw food,
cook at home, eat
Service Design: