Supply Chain Management

SCM 4350 | BUY/SOURCE

Strategic Supply Management

Course Purpose

This course studies the processes and strategies for supply management, category management, vendor development, and sourcing ethics and social issues within modern global and digital supply chains. Students obtain the skills needed to take full ownership of a firm’s products, driving value to the customer throughout the procurement cycle. The business processes taught within this course are used by many consulting companies and world-class businesses to manage their supply chains. The course has been developed with collaborative partnerships with Bauer’s recruiting companies to maximize the industry value our graduates deliver exemplary performance on their first days on the job within the “buy/source” function.

Expected Learning Objectives

Selection of Topics Covered:

• Building relationships and driving innovation
• Improving quality, reputation, and competitive advantage
• Reducing time to market
• Supply management, supply strategy, and strategic sourcing principles
• Strategic spend analysis
• Demand management and specifications
• Category, commodity, and cost management
• Supplier relationship management
• Supplier identification and selection processes
• Supply technology and new product development
• The Strategic Sourcing Process
• Portfolio Analysis
• Sourcing in Globalized Supply Chains
• Managing global currency risks
• Considerations of culture within procurement practices
• Negotiation and leverage tactics
• Sourcing and procurement ethics and law

Course Pedagogy and Immersive/Experiential Activities

The critical experiential activity involves a semester-long industry-imbedded case competition. Within small teams, students evaluate real, current, purchasing data from a large corporate partner. Students are expected to filter, analyze, and display extensive purchasing data analysis, creating global corporate management decisions based upon their analyses. The case reports are presented to corporate managers who rank the performances of each team. Top teams are invited to present their analyses at the corporate headquarters in front of corporate executives. Often, these performance-based networking opportunities result in internship, co-op, and full-time job opportunities.

Students are provided with course notes, textbook resources, lectures, discussions, and coaching.

Grades are typically determined by performance in the group case competition and two Exams.