ITSCM 465: Global Operations Strategy: Study its Production

Finally, study South Africa's capacity to produce these products. 

You will not find one single article that says "South Africa can produce and distribute X million vials of remdesivir!" or whatever your product is.

Instead, you will need to follow a process to search for scholarly research: 

1. Identify your most important search keywords (or phrases). Maybe my initial search words are something like this: 

   covid-19

   hospitalized

   ventilators

   supply chain

   South Africa

2. Brainstorm more possible search words. Not all writers use the same words when talking about a topic. Or you might think of broader or narrower terms -- instead of covid-19, what about sourcing in other pandemics, or other emergencies? Write them in a column underneath the initial search words you wrote: 

   covid-19	hospitalized	ventilators	supply chain	South Africa
   coronavirus	ICU	respirators	sourcing
   pandemic	critical care	breathing support	procurement
   emergency	care	any brand names of ventilators??	needs
   	patient care
   	intensive care

3. Remember, you can also be a "smart searcher" by using these tricks -- add them to your search words you wrote down above: 
          Use "quotation marks" around phrases to get fewer results. supply chain = 2.8M results;  "supply chain" = 1.8M results
          Use truncation with an asterisk to find all possible endings of a word. hospital* will find hospital, hospitals, hospitalized, hospitalization...
4. Run your search with at least one word from each column to start with. Skim the results to find articles that might mention small details related to South Africa's production. 
          If you get no/few results --> take away a word, or take away the quotation marks
          If you get too many/irrelevant results --> add a word, or add quotation marks
5. Try lots of different search words and combinations. Keep track of what you are using, and make a note of particular search combinations that are effective. Yes, this is time-consuming. That's why it's called research!

Start your search for articles in the library databases below.

You probably are most interested in scholarly journals, so limit to that in your search results first. However, trade journals and even some business-related news might have press releases related to a certain company that is a major supplier for some product, so check those too. 

• Trade Journals -- are similar to popular magazines, but targeted to people working in that specific industry. E.g., Modern Grocer, Beverage World.
• Scholarly Journals -- usually provide academic, peer-reviewed, independently quality-tested research. E.g., Journal of Supply Chain Management.
• Current Newspapers or Magazines-- most current, breaking information, press releases, earnings reports from companies, etc. E.g., Milwaukee Business Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur.

In addition to scholarly research above, you may also check out some South-African specific resources for sourcing and lists of companies on the Internet: