Supply Chain Management

SCM 4390

Supply Chain Strategy

Course Purpose

As the capstone course for the Undergraduate Supply Chain Management program, students integrate knowledge from functional supply chain and business courses to develop and execute a comprehensive supply chain strategy used to enhance market competitiveness including product and technology development, sustainability, and digitization. The course covers several analytical techniques that aid in making decisions under uncertainty and the evaluation and management of risk. The course explores various leading-edge initiatives and technologies in supply chain management and how they can be used to develop successful supply chain strategies.

Expected Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course students will:

• Appreciate major strategic issues and trade-offs in supply chain management
• Acquire and strengthen analytical capabilities to uncover problems and improvement opportunities on a global scale
• Recommend and deploy improvements along dimensions of customer service, efficiency, quality, speed, and flexibility
• Align supply chain processes to bust support market, product, and service needs
• Enhance market competitiveness and industry value creation
• Establish long-term decisions involving the investment in:
  • Productive resources
  • Configuration of processes
  • Product design
  • Development of partnerships with suppliers
  • Channels of distribution
• Selection of Topics Covered:
  • Differentiating flexible and efficient supply chains
  • Forecasting in complex environments
  • Global supply chain alignment and managing risk
  • Coordinating sales, purchasing, operations, logistics, customer management
  • Blockchain and distributed ledger technology
  • Supply chain data analytics and optimization
  • C-Suite Supply Chain and Financial Management decisions
  • Total value optimization and supply chain design
  • Utilizing Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain Management decisions
  • Managing environmental concerns within supply chains
  • Social and corporate governance considerations
  • Disruptive Supply Chain Technologies

Course Pedagogy and Immersive/Experiential Activities

The primary experiential feature of this capstone course is a semester-long complex and competitive simulation experience. Teams of students form executive teams to manage a global production supply chain, gaining hands-on experience and insight into the interactions between:

• Inventory policies
• Production schedules
• Supplier schedules
• Customer service commitments
• Logistical challenges
• Environmental and process sustainability
• Strategy segmentation and supply chain design
• Real-time problem solving and data analysis
• Managing supply chain profitability
• Strategy execution

Components of this simulation include corporate performance, periodic KPI assessment and improvement, a Board of Directors presentation, and a Strategy presentation.

Students will be exposed to current Supply Chain Management Strategy considerations through a series of relevant and contemporary articles along with critical analysis of current global supply chain performance.

Students are provided with course notes, textbook resources, simulation resources, articles, and lectures.

Grades are typically determined by performance in a series of Quizzes that progressively cover the course material, major team simulation performance and presentation, individual assignments, course participation, and two Exams.