Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding:
by means of frontal lessons, the student acquires the method and knowledge required to describe, understand and design the supply chain, like strategic choices, product flows, KPIs and performance measurements.
At the end of the course the student will understand how leading companies in their field (food, textile clothing, ebusiness, pharmaceutical) organize the suply chain to compete and generate competitive fiction
Applying knowledge and understanding:
Through practical classroom exercises connected to some important topics, students learn how to apply the acquired knowledge in a real context of design, as well as in multidisciplinary or non-familiar areas.In particular, the student will have to apply the acquired knowledge to the logistics network, stock management policies, KPIs measurements.
Making judgements:
The student must be able to understand and critically evaluate the supply netowork; using acquired knowledge, he will have to analyze existing systems and assess their performances and adequacy, assess the impact of strategic, planning and operational decisions, measure supply chain performances.
The student must be able to understand the substantial differences in terms of strategic decisions, planning and supply chain operations required in the various industrial sectors analyzed
Communication skills:
Through the front lessons and the assistance of the teacher, the student acquires the specific vocabulary inherent to the supply chain. At the end of the course, the student is expected to be able to communicate the main contents of the course, both written and orally, such as ideas, engineering issues and related solutions. The student must communicate his knowledge through appropriate tools, so numerical problems are solved using common methods in the industry such as tables, diagrams, flow charts, and numerical spreadsheets.
Through the analysis of business case in english the student will be appropriated of the Anglo-Saxon terminology related to supply chain management
Learning skills:
The student who has attended the course will be able to deepen his knowledge of production plants through the autonomous consultation of specialized books, scientific or divulgative journals, even outside the topics explained during lectures.
Prerequisites
There are no compulsory prerequisites, but students are advised to have attended the course of Industrial Logistics and Operations Management
Course unit content
The class examines the supply chain from different perspectives: the physical structure which it is composed of (actors, roles, infrastructures and processes), the organizational structure of the people involved (business functions and related interactions and integrations), and the manifold flows that characterize it (product flows, information flows, service flows and monetary flows).
For each of these dimensions, the class thoroughly illustrates how to design and manage it, aligning supply chain performance and competitive strategies through an integrated approach, which is key to generate competitive advantage.
The class covers the different topics by combining a quantitative approach typical of engineering disciplines and adopted particularly in the operational parts, with a qualitative approach which fits in the more strategic parts.
The class thoroughly describes industry best practices, especially in the food and consumer goods, fashion and apparel, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, stemming from teacher’s real life experiences in these fields.
Full programme
Introduction to the Supply Chain Concept
Physical Representation of the Supply Chain
Representation of the Supply Chain Through the Business Functions
Representation of the Supply Chain Through Information Flows
Representation of the Supply Chain Through Service Flows
Bibliography
Antonio Rizzi, Supply Chain, Sringer 2022
The notes of the lectures and exercises, and all the supporting material are available to students and shared in Elly web portal
Teaching methods
The course counts 9 CFUs (one CFU, University Credits equals one ECTS credit and represents the workload of a student during educational activities aimed at passing the exams), which corresponds to 72 hours of lectures. The didactic activities are composed of frontal lessons alternating with exercises. The theoretical topics of the course are explained by means of lectures. Exercises and business cases are proposed on the practical parts of the course. Moreover, business cases are discussed as examples of the main theoretical arguments of the course.
Assessment methods and criteria
Verification of the knowledge takes place through a written test based on open questions, lasting 1 hour. The test usually consists of 4 questions that may relate to theoretical content, demonstrations, and exercises, case study that have been done during the course. The final vote is calculated by assigning a mark in the range 0-4 for each question and then performing the normalized average of the individual evaluations, with final ceiling to the next unit; the test is exceeded if it reaches a score of at least 18 points. “30 cum laude” is given to students who achieve the highest score on each item and use precise vocabulary.
Other information
Course attendance is not mandatory. For students who can not attend the audio files and pdf files of the lessons are made available on the shared internet platform. Furthermore, they can refer to the text book
