Supply Chain Management Courses

SCO 6285 Managing Supply Chain Operations (4cr)
This course serves as an introduction to the program, providing an overview of key strategic concepts and frameworks in supply chain and operations management. The course is taught as a cohort experience with opportunities to interact outside the classroom. Supply chain professionals from a variety of industries are featured throughout to highlight how supply chain concepts apply in different contexts. The course takes a systems perspective of the global supply chain, providing an overview of how to evaluate, improve, and lead end-to-end processes from suppliers to customers.

SCO 6291 Leadership Development (2cr)
The purpose of this course is to equip and inspire greater personal leadership capabilities that are necessary to successfully meet business challenges today and in the future.  The course proposition is that effective and, moreover, extraordinary leadership is the differentiator for professional career growth, particularly for supply chain professionals.   Through the framework of “leading self, leading team and leading the organization+”, each session will focus on critical leadership challenges.  Students will create and apply a personal leadership development plan and have the opportunity to apply insights and assess progress throughout the MS SCM program.  Specific course outcomes include: building stronger personal leadership self-awareness and insight; increasing capabilities to recognize and prepare for ‘leadership passage’ with career advancement including creating strategies to address possible derailment patterns and advance personal signature strengths; elevating ability to inspire and influence at the team, enterprise level, and beyond.

SCO 6098 Operations Excellence via Lean Thinking (2cr)
This course introduces the concepts and theory of quality control, philosophical foundations of lean thinking, and technical concepts related to flow and pull, and tools such as value stream mapping, A3, and 5S. Students learn to identify, measure, and eliminate non-value added activities, process capability analysis, statistical process control, and acceptance sampling from extended value chains in manufacturing and service settings through hands-on exercises, and the principles of lean and employee and management culture.

SCO 6185 Statistics (2cr)
This course introduces quantitative and business statistics concepts for managerial decision making and problem-solving. The course first focuses on the nature of statistical studies and the differences between observational and experimental studies. Methods for producing data, including sampling techniques, process monitoring, and designed experiments will be discussed. Students learn graphical and numerical methods for descriptive statistics. Foundations for statistical inference are covered, including basic probability, discrete and continuous probability distributions, and sampling distributions of statistics.  Students then learn how to apply the two basic inferential methods of statistics, statistical estimation, and tests of statistical hypotheses. These methods are used to make inferences about population parameters including means, proportions and standard deviations.  The students also learn to identify sample size requirements.

SCO 6085 Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning (2cr)
Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SI&OP) is an important process that can provide significant payoffs for a firm. SI&OP links strategic goals with production while coordinating financial, operations, sales, marketing, and human resource objectives.  This course is designed to address the following questions:  What should an executive know about SI&OP?  How does SI&OP link with strategic planning, MPS, capacity plans, etc.? What are the key challenges in developing an effective SI&OP process? What techniques are most effective? To address these questions, the course covers a range of topics including forecasting, aggregate planning, master production scheduling, capacity planning, inventory planning, and material requirement planning through cases, simulations, and class discussions.

SCO 6191 Big Data Analytics in Supply Chains (2cr)
The course will develop the capability of students to analyze and interpret big data – characterized by volume, variety, velocity, and veracity – that is fundamental to managing supply chains. Through a combination of lectures, readings, hands-on exercises with real world problems and datasets, and guest speakers from industry with expertise in big data analytics in managing supply chains, the course will provide opportunities to: (i) Get exposed to the various facets of big data analytics: data access, data aggregation, data analysis, data visualization, and data interpretation; (ii) Evaluate the appropriateness and inappropriateness of big data analytics; (iii) Work on big data analytics exercises relevant to managing supply chains; and (iv) Interpret and communicate the results of big data analysis to senior management.

SCO 6045 Strategic Sourcing (2cr)
An effective and efficient procurement function can make a noticeable contribution to company results, but that is not enough. As companies strive for greater results, today’s sourcing managers have a significant strategic role in designing a supply chain that supports and delivers the business strategy. This course explores how strategic sourcing leads to more innovative products, better customer solutions, faster time-to-market, lower total cost, increased revenues, enhanced organizational reputation, and ultimately competitive advantage through the supply network. In addition to readings, lectures, class discussions and activities, senior sourcing leaders from a variety of businesses will visit for conversations with the class.

SCO 6072 Managing Technology in Supply Chains (2cr)
The course develops capabilities for (i) making well-informed technology choice decisions; (ii) effectively managing the development and implementation of technologies; and (iii) collaboratively engaging in crisis management and problem-solving during technology development and implementation. The central question around which the course will be organized is: How can technologies and the related processes and people issues be managed to design and sustain reliable, responsive, resilient and responsible supply chains?  Topics covered include technology project management as it relates to offshoring and near-shoring; managing technologies in the context of supply chains in emerging economies; and managing technologies for sustainable supply chains. Implications of globalization for managing technologies in supply chains will be a theme that will run through the entire duration of the course. Issues related to the management of technologies, processes, and people via which organizations connect, coordinate, and collaborate with its trading partners (suppliers and customers) in global supply chains for goods and services will be addressed. The course will adopt an end-to-end view of supply chains in specific industry sectors to examine, in-depth, decisions related to the development, implementation, and exploitation of technologies strategically. 

SCO 6048 Logistics and Transportation (2cr)
As supply chains become increasingly global, managing the complexity of distribution and transportation is critical to supply chain performance.  This course provides an understanding of the dynamics of key logistics and transportation decisions, including the design of the distribution network, choice of transportation modes and routes, location and design of distribution centers, and management of last mile logistics. Students will explore how these decisions are made by leading companies and what influence these decisions have on the performance dimensions of flexibility, speed, reliability, accessibility, and cost. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to best practices and gain an appreciation for the challenges that companies typically face in managing their logistics and transportation network, including how to innovate in light of competitive pressures and external shocks.

SCO 6094 Responsible Supply Chain Management (2cr)
Companies around the world are facing increasing pressure to perform well on the triple bottom line – People, Planet, and Profit – and responsible supply chain management is often a cornerstone of the CSR strategy for many companies. This course looks at how and why responsible supply chain management could be a powerful strategy to enhance a company’s triple bottom line. The course focuses on the social and environmental aspects of managing supply chain operations. Particular emphasis is placed on human rights, health and safety, and environmental issues faced by supply chain managers and the linkage to the firm’s supply chain strategy.   

SCO 6192 Supply Chain Finance (2cr)
Managing the financial flows and capital is just as important as managing the physical flow of goods and services. This course focuses on the underlying links between supply chain performance and value creation in organizations.  Students learn concepts and tools related to supply chain costing, capital project financial valuation, financial reporting, working capital management, and external value measures. The course looks at financial issues associated with the supply chain including commodity, foreign trade, supplier, and compliance risks and students develop an understanding of how financial considerations influence and inform a firm’s supply chain strategy.

SCO 6292 Capstone
Supply Chain Solutions (An Experiential Course) (4cr): Bring all of the knowledge, skills, and tools developed in the MS SCM program to bear on an impactful global supply chain project for an external client.  The objective for this course is to teach critical thinking and analysis skills in a global operations context.  Students will conduct a fact-based analysis of a global supply chain issue for an external client.  This course increases student understanding of the strategic nature of decision making in the supply chain field, and allows students to apply such thinking to the design and improvement of global supply chain networks.  The course emphasizes critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and client management skills.  Students will conduct primary and secondary research in order to develop a set of meaningful recommendations for a client on a global supply chain issue.

SCO 6096 Supply Chain Management in the Health Care & Medical Devices Sector (2cr)
The course prepares students to develop capabilities for designing and sustaining reliable, responsive, resilient, and responsible supply chains to enable the delivery of high quality, high volume, and affordable physical and mental health care equitably in both developed and developing countries. The course advances an end-to-end, supply chain-centric view of the healthcare and medical devices sector – i.e., linking the development of care to the delivery of care: i.e., “from bench to bed.”  The course highlights the interdependencies between organizations on the upstream (e.g., medical devices, pharma, and biotech firms) and downstream (e.g., hospitals and clinics) of the healthcare supply chain. The implications of scientific and technological advancements – specifically, precision medicine, surgical robots, mobile & wearable devices, telemedicine, and IoT – for designing and sustaining healthcare supply chains will be a theme that will run through the entire course.

APEC 5831: Food and Agribusiness Markets (2 cr)
This course provides an overview of the industrial organization and current policy issues impacting the food and agribusiness marketplace.  It will include a comprehensive look at each sector within the food and agribusiness value chain. Topics include food policies (Farm Bills, food stamps, food labeling, etc.), environmental policies (water, invasive species, agriculture production, etc.), and industrial organization issues (marketing and production contracts, overview of firm strategic orientation, distribution, etc.).  The course will utilize a lively combination of lectures, case studies, and guest speakers.

SCO 6041 Project Management (2cr)
In the course of their careers, contemporary managers spend a significant amount of time either participating in or leading projects. Projects are frequently used as proving-grounds for high-potentials. The skills that are required in project management are often the very same attributes that are required for successfully managing a business. While every project is by definition unique, some concepts and tools (e.g., critical path method, project life cycle, project risk, time and cost tradeoffs, resource utilization, methods to deal with uncertainties) in project management apply to a wide range of different types of projects. The aim of this course is to equip students with these concepts and tools (e.g. Monte Carlo simulation, risk analysis, etc.) and to develop them into successful project managers, as well as team members. 

SCO 6091 Process Improvement Methods (2cr)
This course introduces the tools, problem-solving methods, and organizational structures for process improvement. The course is organized around the DMAIC (Define Measure Analyze Improve and Control) method for process improvement in Six Sigma, but will also consider more general methods like PDCA (Plan Do Check Act). In addition, the course will consider broader aspects of process improvement that includes understanding organizational change, aligning process improvements with strategy, and the four-step concept. This course takes both a project level and organizational level perspective to understand process improvement and Six Sigma.

MGMT 6004 Negotiations Strategies (2cr)
The objective of the course is to gain a broad understanding of the central concepts in negotiation and to develop confidence in negotiation as an effective means for resolving conflicts in organizations.  The course is designed to be relevant to the broad spectrum of negotiation problems that are faced by managers and professionals.  The class sessions will provide you with extensive negotiation experience, which includes learning how to evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of alternative actions, and to analyze the behavior and motives of individuals, groups, and organizations in settings that have both competitive and cooperative elements. Specific topics include fundamentals in decision-making, distributive negotiations, integrative negotiations, inter-group negotiations, intra-group negotiations, coalition formation, third-party negotiations and an introduction to international negotiations.