Supply Chain Management

Teacher(s)

Tancrez Jean-Sébastien;

Language

English

Prerequisites

Basic notions of mathematics, probability theory and
statistics.

Main themes

Supply chain management has gained tremendous
momentum over the past decades and is rightfully seen as
a competitive imperative in today's far-reaching and
increasingly more complex supply networks. However,
coordinating a supply chain represents a huge challenge,
and requires understanding how integrated supply chains
can delight customers, how to overcome adverse supply
chain dynamics, how to manage inventory and information,
as well as how to preserve superior supplier relationships.
Advancing supply chain management can deliver dramatic
results; it can put a company ahead of competition or leave
it behind.
In this course, several important concepts and topics will
be addressed:
- Introduction to the supply chain, its main concepts and its
importance
- Strategic supply chain design and facility location
- Inventory management
- Information flows in the supply chain
- Outsourcing, supplier relationships and revenue
management
- New trends in supply chain management

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of this course, the student is able to: - Explain the importance of supply chain management in today's companies' competitive strategy. - Identify the main characteristics of a company's supply chain strategy, in particular related to the main drivers of supply chain performance. - Analyze the consistency of a company's supply chain strategy with its competitive strategy and its customer needs. - Propose recommendations in the right direction to validate or improve a company's supply chain strategy. - Choose and apply the right inventory policy to a particular case, based on structured reasoning. - Recognize the impact of other functions and of other stages on a company's supply chain strategy.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

Nowadays, supply chain management is rightfully seen as a competitive imperative for companies to manage their far-reaching and increasingly more complex supply networks. However, moving on from the old era of functional excellence to state of the art supply chain management practices requires understanding how integrated supply chains can delight customers, how to overcome adverse supply chain dynamics, how to manage inventory and information, as well as how to preserve superior supplier relationships. Supply chain management can put a company ahead of competition or leave it behind.
The course will use a combination of cases from various industries, a simulation exercise, a company visit, lectures and group discussions to introduce the main concepts of supply chain management. It will provide guidelines on questions such as: Why does an integrated view of the supply chain matters? How should companies align their strategy and their supply chain? How to best adapt the supply chain portfolio to a company’s product portfolio? How to apply inventory policies and what are the main trade-offs? How to make good use of information flows? How to manage relationships with suppliers? What are the new trends in supply chain management? What are the impacts of sustainability concerns on the supply chain?
At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Explain the importance of supply chain management in companies’ competitive strategy.
• Identify the main characteristics of a company’s supply chain strategy, in particular related to the main drivers of supply chain performance.
• Analyze the consistency of a company’s supply chain strategy with its competitive strategy and its customer needs.
• Propose recommendations in the right direction to validate or improve a company’s supply chain strategy.
• Choose and apply the right inventory policy to a particular case, based on structured reasoning.
• Recognize the impact of other functions and of other stages on a company’s supply chain strategy.

Teaching methods

The course will use a combination of cases from various industries, a simulation exercise, a company visit, lectures and group discussions. An important share of the course relies on case studies. The latter have to be read before the class and then serve as a basis for discussion in class, to reveal the key concepts of Supply Chain Management and to provide perspective. Moreover, other tools such as simulation exercises, more formal introductions to the supply chain theory, as well as some glimpse on recent trends in the field are used to introduce the student to supply chain management.

Evaluation methods

The grading aims at evaluating the ability to understand a case study (participation and assignment) and on the assimilation of the main concepts of Supply Chain Management (exam). Class participation (25%) is essential for your learning as well as the group learning. It is thus part of the grading process, using a participation sheet that you will be asked to fill at the end of each course. In the individual written assignment (25%), you should demonstrate that you are able to understand and discuss a case study. The case study as well as detailed instructions will be provided towards the end of the course. The assignment will have to be submitted before the written exam. During the examination session, the final written examination (50%) will test your understanding of the main concepts of supply chain management, learned from the cases as well as from the theoretical lectures.

Other information

Company case studies will be provided in time (prior to the corresponding sessions), in paper version. Slides will be provided in the beginning of each course, in paper version (with some parts hidden to allow for discussion in class). After each course, the slides as well as optional complementary readings will be uploaded on the student-corner.

Bibliography

Main References:

• Chopra Sunil and Meindl Peter, 2013. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operation, 5th Global Edition. Pearson Education.
• Nahmias Steven, 2009. Production and Operations Analysis, 6th International Edition. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York.

Faculty or entity

CLSM