Sup­ply Chain Con­fig­ur­a­tion - De­cisions and Mod­els

Course content

The overall aim of the course is to develop students’ competence in terms of basic approaches, methods and instruments that support key decisions in supply chain configuration, planning and mobilization.

The course introduces important decision-making problems related to the configuration, planning and mobilization of modern supply chains. Its basic intention is to reflect the specific nature of the problem settings in this context and to provide the students with a sound overview of the standard problems. The course introduces the repertoire of standard methods and instruments supporting those important decisions, and develops students´ ability to match specific decision-making problems with appropriate approaches to solving them. Beyond that, it introduces more specific examples and approaches to planning and decision-making support and thus explores the complexity that is involved in configuring and planning decisions within a supply chain management environment.
Finally, it also briefly addresses specific practical challenges that go beyond the pure methodological issues of tools and touches upon topics such as overcoming human resistance or implementing the instruments into planning software.
Overall, the course provides students with the skills to identify the nature of key decision-making problems, the applicability of supporting instruments and potential limitations in the context of supply chain management.