Glob­al Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment

Course content

Supply Chain Management and modern business logistics provide theoretical as well as practical approaches for direct or indirect value creation by improving performance and/or reducing costs. Key is the alignment, configuration, integration and coordination of flows across manufacturers, retailers, and logistics service providers that are involved in such chains. This means that the institutional setting of a single firm and its business functions as well as the context and environment of the supply chain as a whole needs to be taken into account. Using mini-cases and company cases, the course is designed to reflect and to illustrate in different modules these different perspectives of whole supply chains as well as that of the involved single actor’s and respective that of single business functions like sourcing, production, or distribution. The course thus provides a basic understanding on theory and conceptions of modern business logistics and Supply Chain Management and helps to understand the different institutional settings of a total supply chain view as well as that on the single actors and their company functions.

Further on, globalization implies both globalization of operations (e.g. sourcing, production and logistics) and that of consumption. Customers and suppliers in one country are different from those in another, just as transport, inventory, warehousing, distribution and communication systems differ to cater to specific business environments. Since the scope of supply chain management spans the entire set of organizations from procurement of materials and components to delivery of finished products to the end consumer, it poses additional complexity in the form of extended supply chains where, for example, a company develops a new product in the United States, sources and manufactures it in Asia, and distributes and markets it in the US, Asia and Europe. Therefore, setting up and managing international or global supply chains means that sourcing, production and distribution have to consider differences and similarities between various markets to set up synergized transport, inventory, warehousing, distribution, and communication systems. The course will take especially the logistics and supply chain challenges that result from such global environments into account.

The course built first on the basic theoretical fundaments of modern logistics and supply chain management, such as systems thinking, flow thinking, integration as well as other concepts that are adapted for logistics and Supply Chain Management issues. Across the views of different involved actors, students learn to apply these theoretical building blocks on different levels of description and analysis, for instance by applying arguments for different types of global supply chain designs and strategies, information sharing initiatives in the chain, or selecting distribution and transportation networks. Beyond the theoretical background provided in the introductory sessions, the course emphasizes on the ‘how to’ aspects of global supply chain management. Each session therefore strives on creating a toolbox for the students that may be applied in future practical settings, for dealing with basic supply chain management issues such as ‘partnerships’, ‘information sharing’, and ‘supplier selection’.

The course includes case-based and mini-case-based application of key theoretical and operational concepts in order to understand the global supply chain management practices of leading companies such as Ford, Procter & Gamble, Metro, Tesco, or Toyota. Finally, this course has also been designed keeping in mind the faculty’s research competence in the field of global supply chain management. Problem settings and examples of past and current research projects will be applied to illustrate theories, specific context and related supply chain challenges. Where appropriate additionally guest speakers will be invited to support the distinct perspectives or to relate their research to the management of global supply chains. Guest lectures in the past have included themes such as ‘product and process innovation’, and ‘Efficient Consumer Response’ in the global supply chain. Future guests might speak about “Globalization of Retailing Supply Chains”, or “RfID Applications in global Supply Chains”.