Introduction to Supply Chain Management

Hours: 180 / Access Length: 12 Months / Delivery: Online, Self-Paced

Course Overview:

Supply chains encompass the companies and the business activities needed to design, make, deliver, and use a product or service. Businesses depend on their supply chains to provide them with what they need to survive and thrive. Every business fits into one or more supply chains and has a role to play in each of them.

This course provides an organized framework for understanding the essential concepts of supply chain management and how to develop and deploy supply chains to achieve success in the fast-paced, global economy we all live in

Students will:

• Appreciate what a supply chain is and what it does
• Understand where your company fits in the supply chains it participates in and the role it plays in those supply chains
• Exercise an executive-level understanding of operations involved in supply chain planning and sourcing
• Assess supply operations in your company that may be candidates for outsourcing
• Identify available technologies that is available to support and enable effective supply chain operations
• Employ a useful model for assessing markets and the supply chains that support them
• Define a concise set of metrics for measuring the performance of a company's supply chain operations
• Understand a common supply chain dynamic that is a major contributor to the “boom to bust” business cycle
• Consider trends that make coordination and collaboration key requirements for success in twenty-first century supply chains.
• Define performance targets for your company to succeed in the markets you serve

Course Outline:

Lesson 1: Key Concepts of Supply Chain Management

This lesson will define Supply Chain Management, the goals, business models, strategy alignment, along with the historical view and background of the practice.

Lesson 2: Supply Chain Operations: Planning And Sourcing

This lesson will introduce the business operations that drive the supply chain.  Planning and Sourcing will be defined along with business strategies and operational goals to help increase success.

Lesson 3: Supply Chain Operations: Making And Delivering

This lesson will provide details of the Make category including the operations required to develop and build the products and services that a supply chain provides.  The Delivery category will also be introduced to ensure customers receive products and services.

Lesson 4: Using Information Technology

This lesson will cover the three functions of supporting technology for effective supply chain operations including data capture and communication, data storage and retrieval, and data manipulation and reporting.

Lesson 5: Metrics for Measuring Supply Chain Performance

This lesson will define the four market quadrants of a useful market model: Developing, Growth, Steady, and Maturity.

Lesson 6: Supply Chain Coordination

This lesson will introduce supply chain coordination including "the bullwhip effect" which happens when small changes in product demand by the consumer at the front end of the supply chain translates into wider and wider swings in demand, as experienced by customers further back in the supply chain.

Lesson 7: Supply Chain Innovation for the Real-Time Economy

This lesson will provide real-time innovations for supply chain management including collaboration, coordination simulations, and monitoring systems to help improve communication between companies.

Lesson 8: Defining Supply Chain Opportunities

This lesson will introduce the work of defining supply chain opportunities and how the five key deliverables are produced to create a complete end to end supply chain.

Lesson 9: Creating Supply Chains for Competitive Advantage

This lesson will show you how to create competitive advantages supply chains including identifying new emerging opportunities, creative objectives, and strategic alliances for competitive advantage.

Lesson 10: The Promise of The Real-Time Supply Chain

This lesson will provide a detailed look at the effect of dynamic, real time supply chains.  These supply chains are highly responsive and very efficient to allow for real time operating adjustments for better adjustments to business changes.

All necessary course materials are included.

System Requirements:

Internet Connectivity Requirements:

• Cable, Fiber, DSL, or LEO Satellite (i.e. Starlink) internet with speeds of at least 10mb/sec download and 5mb/sec upload are recommended for the best experience.

NOTE: While cellular hotspots may allow access to our courses, users may experience connectivity issues by trying to access our learning management system.  This is due to the potential high download and upload latency of cellular connections.   Therefore, it is not recommended that students use a cellular hotspot as their primary way of accessing their courses.

Hardware Requirements:

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 4 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher.  1920x1080 resolution is recommended for the best experience.
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone for Webinar or Live Online sessions.

Operating System Requirements:

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions
  

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

Web Browser Requirements:

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

Basic Software Requirements (These are recommendations of software to use):

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is described in the above course outline.