What is a sup­ply chain

• Unders­tand what a sup­ply chain is ;
• Unders­tand the dif­fe­rence bet­ween logis­tics and sup­ply chain management ;
• Dis­cuss the goal of a sup­ply chain and explain the impact of sup­ply chain deci­sions on the suc­cess of a firm ;
• Iden­ti­fy the three key sup­ply chain deci­sion phases and explain the signi­fi­cance of each one ;
• Define sup­ply chain management ;
• Des­cribe the cycle and push/pull views of a sup­ply chain ;
• Unders­tand the dif­ferent clas­si­fi­ca­tions of a sup­ply chain ;
• Define what a res­pon­sive sup­ply chain is ;
• Iden­ti­fy careers in sup­ply chain management.

Sup­ply chain performance

• Unders­tand what a com­pe­ti­tive stra­te­gy is, what a pro­duct deve­lop­ment stra­te­gy and a sup­ply chain stra­te­gy are ;
• Define the main dif­ferent sup­ply chain strategies ;
• Unders­tand stra­te­gic fit, and explain why achie­ving stra­te­gic fit is cri­ti­cal to a company’s ove­rall success ;
• Define adap­ted per­for­mance mea­sures for a sup­ply chain ;
• Des­cribe SCOR model for the eva­lua­tion of sup­ply chain performance.

Demand Fore­cas­ting

• Unders­tand the role of fore­cas­ting for both an enter­prise and a sup­ply chain ;
• Iden­ti­fy the com­po­nents of a demand forecast ;
• Fore­cast demand in a sup­ply chain given his­to­ri­cal demand data using time-series methodologies ;
• Ana­lyze demand fore­casts to esti­mate fore­cast error.

Inven­to­ry management

• Des­cribe what an inven­to­ry is ;
• Explain why inven­to­ry mana­ge­ment is important ;
• Unders­tand inven­to­ry rela­ted costs ;
• Des­cribe the dif­ferent types of inventory ;
• Des­cribe dif­ferent mea­sures of pro­duct availability ;
• Unders­tand the role of safe­ty inven­to­ry in a sup­ply chain ;
• Iden­ti­fy fac­tors that influence the requi­red level of safe­ty inventory ;
• Uti­lize avai­lable mana­ge­rial levers to lower safe­ty inven­to­ry without hur­ting pro­duct availability.

Reple­nish­ment strategy

• Unders­tand dif­ferent reple­nish­ment strategies ;
• Choose the most adap­ted reple­nish­ment stra­te­gy for a given product ;
• Balance the appro­priate costs to choose the opti­mal lot size and cycle inven­to­ry in a sup­ply chain ;
• Unders­tand the impact of quan­ti­ty dis­counts on lot size and cycle inventory ;
• Devise appro­priate dis­coun­ting schemes for a sup­ply chain ;
• Unders­tand the impact of trade pro­mo­tions on lot size and cycle inventory ;
• Iden­ti­fy mana­ge­rial levers that reduce lot size and cycle inven­to­ry in a sup­ply chain without increa­sing cost ;
• Unders­tand ABC inven­to­ry control.

Mas­ter Plan­ning and Aggre­gate planning

• Unders­tand the impor­tance of mas­ter plan­ning as a sup­ply chain activity ;
• Des­cribe the infor­ma­tion nee­ded to pro­duce an aggre­gate (mas­ter) plan and the out­puts obtained ;
• Explain the basic trade-offs to consi­der when crea­ting an aggre­gate plan ;
• For­mu­late and solve basic aggre­gate plan­ning problems.

Dis­tri­bu­tion Network

• Deter­mine the key fac­tors to be consi­de­red when desi­gning a dis­tri­bu­tion network ;
• Unders­tand the strengths and weak­nesses of various dis­tri­bu­tion options ;
• Unders­tand new trends in dis­tri­bu­tion networks ;
• Choose best fit­ting dis­tri­bu­tion network.

Trans­por­ta­tion network

• Unders­tand the role of trans­por­ta­tion in a sup­ply chain ;
• Eva­luate the strengths and weak­nesses of dif­ferent modes of transportation ;
• Iden­ti­fy costs rela­ted when desi­gning a trans­por­ta­tion network.

Sup­ply chain net­work design

• Com­pre­hend the impor­tance of net­work desi­gn in a sup­ply chain ;
• Deter­mine the fac­tors influen­cing sup­ply chain net­work desi­gn decisions ;
• Unders­tand the pro­po­sed approach and method for making net­work desi­gn decisions ;
• Use opti­mi­za­tion (mathe­ma­ti­cal pro­gram­ming) for faci­li­ty loca­tion and capa­ci­ty allo­ca­tion decisions ;
• Include uncer­tain­ty in sup­ply net­work design.

Pri­cing

• Unders­tand the role of pri­cing in a sup­ply chain ;
• Des­cribe dif­ferent pri­cing strategies ;
• Iden­ti­fy condi­tions under which each pri­cing stra­te­gy inclu­ding reve­nue mana­ge­ment tac­tics can be effective ;
• Des­cribe trade-offs that must be consi­de­red when making pri­cing and reve­nue mana­ge­ment decisions.

Ware­house management

• Explain why ware­house mana­ge­ment is important ;
• Des­cribe dif­ferent ware­house typologies ;
• Unders­tand the ware­house basic operations ;
• Define ware­house management ;
• Unders­tand ware­house desi­gn and sizing.

Sour­cing Management

• Unders­tand the role of sour­cing in a sup­ply chain ;
• Dis­cuss fac­tors that affect the deci­sion to out­source a sup­ply chain function ;
• Des­cribe dif­ferent sour­cing strategies ;
• Iden­ti­fy dimen­sions of sup­plier per­for­mance that affect total cost ;
• Des­cribe dif­ferent types of auc­tions and unders­tand basics of negotiations ;
• Unders­tand impor­tance of risk sharing ;
• Des­cribe dif­ferent types of contracts ;
• Unders­tand dif­ferent sup­plier mana­ge­ment techniques.

Reverse Logis­tics and clo­sed loop sup­ply chain

• Explain what reverse logis­tics is ;
• Des­cribe the main actors in a reverse logis­tics chain ;
• Iden­ti­fy the main acti­vi­ties in a reverse logis­tics chain ;
• Unders­tand a pro­po­sed method for reverse logis­tics design.