Course Contents

• Understanding Supply Chain: What is a supply chain; Decisions phases in a supply chain; Process views of a supply chain. • Supply Chain Performance Achieving Strategic Fit and Scope: Competitive And Supply Chain Strategies; Achieving Strategic Fit; Expanding Strategic Scope; Obstacles to Achieving Strategic Fit. • Supply Chain Drivers and Matrices: Impellers of Supply Chain; Drivers of Supply chain Performance; Framework for Strategic Drivers (Facilities, Information, Inventory, Transportation, Sourcing, Pricing) • Designing Distribution Networks: Role of Distribution in the Supply Chain; Factors influencing Distribution Network Design; Design options for a Distribution Network; E-Business and the Distribution Networks. • Network Design in the Supply Chain: The role of Network Design in the supply chain; Factors influencing Network Design Decisions; Framework for Network Design Decisions; Making Network Design Decisions in Practice, The Impact of Uncertainty on Network Design. • Designing Global Supply Chain Networks: The impact of Globalization on Supply Chain Networks; The Offshoring Decisions: Total Cost; Risk Management in Global Supply Chains. • Demand forecasting in a Supply Chain: The role of forecasting in a supply chain; Characteristics of forecasts; Components of a Forecast and Forecasting Methods. Basic Approach to Demand Forecasting; Time Series Forecasting Methods. • Topics from Transportation in Supply Chain; Sourcing Decisions in a Supply Chain; Co-ordination in a Supply Chain and Bullwhip effect. Final Project: The final project is comprised of a unique business idea. It consists if the following components: • Unique business plan/ product. • Competitive edge of the business. • Potential customers. • Competitive strategies. • Supply chain strategies. • Strategic fit between competitive strategies and supply chain strategies. • Conclusion

Course Synopsis

Supply Chain Management involves the flows of materials and information among all of the firms that contribute value to a product, from the source of raw materials to end customers. Elements of supply chain management have been studied and practiced for some time in marketing, logistics, and operations management. This course will attempt to integrate these different perspectives to develop a broad understanding of how to manage a supply chain.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course it is expected that the student will be able to: • To develop an understanding of key drivers of supply chain performance and their inter-relationships with strategy and other functions of the company such as marketing, manufacturing and accounting. • To impart analytical and problem-solving skills necessary to develop solutions for a variety of supply chain management and design problems and develop an understanding for use of information technology in supply chain optimization. • To understand the complexity of inter-firm and intra-firm coordination in implementing programs such as e-collaboration, quick response, jointly managed inventories and strategic alliances. • To develop the ability to design logistics systems and formulate integrated supply chain strategy, so that all components are not only internally synchronized but also tuned to fit corporate strategy, competitive realities and market needs. • To understand which information should be exchanged in a supply chain and how it should be used to benefit the entire supply chain. • To identify improvement opportunities that exist within supply chains in different industries and to quantify the improvements that various supply chain strategies offer.