Supply Chain Management: A Decision-Making Framework

In this business and management course, you’ll learn how make effective supply chain decisions that take into consideration all aspects of your business.

The course will take a helicopter view for decision-making. The helicopter view is built upon:

• Key questions to decide on: manufacturing organization, late differentiation, location, distribution networks, …
• Objectives relevant to your business: cost, speed, flexibility, reliability, …

We will work through questions such as:

• Should you locate a process in a given country? This decision has an obvious impact on your HR costs, but it also affects your working capital and your ability to react to the market needs.
• Should you centralize your distribution? This decision leads to economies of scale and a better product availability, but it also impacts your carbon emission.

By the end of this course, you will have built a framework that allows you to make better decisions.

1. Get the big picture First touch with the supply chain Rough sketch of what “Supply chain objectives” means Rough overview of strategic “Supply chain decision”
2. Objectives - The business Strategy and the Business target Market segment - attributes Financial objectives Company values and strategic aims Decision in a multi-criteria environment 3. Process Structure Process organization. Artisan – Line – Functional Simulation and examples Strength and Weaknesses Supply chain view and managerial focus MTS/MTO and late differentiation 4. Distribution Centralized/decentralized Distribution flows Warehousing and X-docking Supply chain view and managerial focus 5. Inventory Inventory types Inventory cost Inventory management and supply chain view