Optimizing Material Supply Inventory Management for Dental Clinics: A Supplier Opinion Analysis

If you haven’t already done so elsewhere on this form, in the box below, provide a short (150 words), non-technical summary of the project.

This research would aim to investigate the opinion of the current suppliers in future collaboration in external online platform for material supply. The main goal of the new platform would be to optimize inventory management processes. The dissertation will try to answer the following questions in the context of a dental clinic:
-Why forecasting is important and how to forecast without knowing the demand?
-Why to use ABC technique?
-When and why should a replenishment order be placed?
-How to optimize inventory levels?
-How to use safety stock formula with just in time delivery?
-How to reduce supplier lead time?

For answering the above mentioned question, the research would be based on primary and secondary data. Suppliers opinion would be collected with anonymous questionnaires.

A RESEARCH DESIGN
A1 Will you be using an approved protocol in your project?
A2 If yes, please state the name and code of the approved protocol to be used[ An Approved Protocol is one which has been approved by Cardiff Met to be used under supervision of designated members of staff.  For details of protocols in use in your School or Unit, contact your Ethics Coordinator]
A3 Describe the research design to be used in your project In this section, include details (as appropriate) of:

Research method(s);
Sample and sampling;
Participants including recruitment methods, activities to be undertaken, time commitment, details of any proposed payments;

Analytical techniques
If your project does involve the use of an approved protocol, much less details will be required but you should indicate which areas of the project are covered by the protocol.

Research Method:
The research would include primary and secondary data. Self-administrated questionnaires would be by email to suppliers. The questionnaires would include 15-20 questions and would take 15 minutes to complete.
Questionnaires would be created on Qualtrics with password data protection. Collected data would be saved on Google Drive.

Sample and sampling:
Self-selection and convenience sampling methods would be used to collect information. The research population would include manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and official representatives. The expected sample size is about 100 respondents.

Participants:
All participant would be over 18 years. The participants would be managerial staff and company representatives. The participation in the questionnaires will be voluntary and anonymous.

C POTENTIAL RISKS
C1 What potential risks do you foresee?
Include details of risks to the participants, the researcher and the project as a whole.
-insufficient number of participants who have completed the questionnaires
-data breach or loss of data
 insincere replies on the questions.

C2 How will you deal with the potential risks?
-insufficient number of participants who have completed the questionnaires
-data breach or loss of data
 insincere replies on the questions.

C2 How will you deal with the potential risks?
The questionnaires will be sent by email. If the number of respondents is insufficient, the link to the questionnaire will be sent to more respondents.

The data will be secured by a strong password that only the student keeps. A backup copy of the data will be kept on Google Drive in order to prevent data loss. The access will be managed again with a password only known to the student. The questionnaires will be anonymous which will encourage suppliers to give their sincere opinion. Only anonymous data would be collected.

When submitting your application you MUST attach a copy of the following:

All information sheets Consent/assent form(s) Withdrawal of consent form An exemplar information sheet, exemplar participant consent form and exemplar participant withdrawal form are available via the research section of the Cardiff Met website (see section on Ethics Governance).  These are based on good practice and will be useful in the majority of cases.  However, it is recognised that in some cases a project will be subject to requirements from an external body.  Use of these exemplars is therefore not obligatory.