Supply Chain Management

SCM 3301

Supply Chain Management Fundamentals

This is the exploratory Supply Chain Management (SCM) course required for all Bauer College of Business students, regardless of their major. In addition to providing the foundational skills required for Supply Chain Management majors to be successful in their core courses, this course provides critical exposure to SCM concepts that are valuable to all Bauer Business students, regardless of their major.

Course Purpose

This course covers the broad range of concepts that are used to plan and manage, source and purchase, make and produce, deliver and distribute personalized products and services to meet customer needs in a global environment. Supply Chain Management involves the collaboration of various functional groups including Marketing, Sales, Engineering, Accounting, Finance, Information systems, Production, and Management both inside and outside an organization. Topics covered in this course include Strategy Development, Forecasting, Sales and Operations Planning, Purchasing Strategies, Supplier Management, Process Selection, Scheduling, Project Management, Process Analysis and improvement, Inventory Management, Statistics Basics, Transportation, and Global Logistics. The course is intended to be an introduction to Supply Chain Management as a Major and as a Career and provides a foundation for more in-depth study within the Supply Chain Management Curriculum.

Expected Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, students will be expected to:

• Understand and appreciate the complexity of Supply Chain Management
• Understand the interaction between Supply Chain functions and other business functions
• Describe what is meant by Supply Chain Management and explain why activities in these are critical to an organization’s survival
• Identify academic and career opportunities in Supply Chain Management
• • Explain some of the key ideas surrounding Supply Chain Strategies including the concepts of customer value, performance trade-offs, order winners/qualifiers, strategic alignment, and core competencies
• Describe qualitative and quantitative forecasting techniques
• Be able to calculate basic forecasts and their accuracy
• Understand the relation between forecasting proficiency and business strategy
• Describe why sales and operations planning (S&OP) is important to an organization and the Supply Chain
• Describe the differences, strengths, and weaknesses between a variety of S&OP strategies
• Identify and describe the various steps of the strategic sourcing process, and apply some of the more common analytical tools
• Describe how different manufacturing process choices support different market requirements
• Describe major considerations and tools utilized when managing a project
• Utilize simple project schedule management techniques
• Understand the role of scheduling and MRP in establishing a robust Supply Chain
• Understand the principles of Process Analysis and Process Mapping
• Describe the definitions, dimensions, and improvement of quality
• Understand the foundational elements of Lean and Six Sigma
• Describe the various roles of inventory
• Understand the basic elements of probability: Service Levels and Stockouts
• Be able to calculate restocking levels, EOQ, Safety Stock
• Describe how inventory decisions affect other areas of the Supply Chain
• Discuss the elements and purpose of a logistics strategy
• Understand the features of a variety of modes of transportation
• Describe the importance of global logistics

Course Pedagogy and Immersive/Experiential Activities

Throughout this course, students are exposed to a variety of Industry Professionals within all areas of Supply Chain Management and within a variety of industries, many of whom are University of Houston SCM Alumni. Additionally, throughout the course, students are provided opportunities to personally network with several Bauer SCM Alumni to explore these Supply Chain Management concepts in an individualized environment.

Students are provided with course notes, textbook resources, lectures. Extensive practice problems are provided to students for every mathematical concept covered in the course.

Grades are typically determined by performance in a series of Quizzes that progressively cover the course material and three progressively weighted Exams.