20348 - SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Supply chain management functions can account for a large portion of the total costs of running a business. Moreover, supply chain management plays a major role in implementing companies’ strategy and it impacts on the profitability as well as has a significant and growing impact on customer experience and satisfaction. Furthermore, an increasing portion of the total spending of manufacturing and service-based firms resides outside their boundaries. As consequence, a key foundation of success is the way a focal company manages its relationship with upstream and downstream organizations. Starting from such premises, the mission of this course is to explore how supply chain management can contribute towards a strategically effective and operationally efficient organization or network of organizations.

The most important topics we consider during this course are the following:

• Supply chain and supply chain management: core elements.
• Supply Chain Management: how to achieve the strategic fit.
• Supply Chain performance measurement and management: key performance indicators (KPIs) for service level and stock control.
• The planning process: how to match supply with demand.
• Managerial approaches and best practices to manage suppliers.
• The collaborative practices between suppliers and manufacturers: Collaborative Planning, Supplier Managed Inventory (SMI).
• The collaborative practices between manufacturers and wholesalers/retailers: Continuous Replenishment Program (CRP), Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR).

• Understand established principles, theories and practices of supply chain management, critically evaluate these, and link to various aspects of performance.
• Recognize the role of supply management in the organization, in relation to other supply chain management processes, and the focal company in the context of its wider supply network.
• Analyse and critically assess robustness of supply chain management strategies.

• Apply the appropriate tools and methodologies related to Supply Chain Management decision making process.
• Apply the acquired technical knowledge to solve real-life problems experienced by companies adopting the appropriate supply chain management tools and techniques.
• Use a formal language for the explanation of supply chain management issues and enhance their communication and presentation skills.
• Face problems and questions related to supply chain management through analytical reasoning and critical thinking.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

• As part of the innovation of the teaching and learning model at Bocconi University, this course has been selected to be structured with a blended learning format. Times and modes of learning integrate face-to-face and online activities and resources in a proportion of 80% of face-to-face sessions and 20% of online ones. The course combines different teaching and learning methods according to its learning outcomes.  
• The learning experience of this course includes, in addition to face-to-face lectures, case discussions, group works, real examples and interactions with guest speakers from companies that are coping with specific SCM issues. During the course several cases describing “real-life” situations are discussed and business games are played both to illustrate some of the important concepts in supply chain management and to allow students to deal with the identification and analysis of complex, open-ended issues.

With the purpose of measuring the acquisition of the above-mentioned learning outcomes, the student assessment is based on three main components:

1. Final written exam (individual grade, 60% of the final grade), based on a mix of open and multiplechoice questions, incidents/cases and exercises, which aim to assess the student’s learning level of the theoretical models and the main concepts, methods and tools shared in the course.
2. One group assignment (group grade, 30% of the final grade) designed for the purpose of verifying the student ability to:
   • Identify and analyze the main SCM issues related to reallife situations.
   • Apply the appropriate tools and techniques learnt in class.
   • Use a formal language for the explanation of the specific SCM issues.
3. One group assignment (group grade, 10% of the final grade) concerning the GSCM simulation.

The attendance are measured by the specific app available to all students. To take the exam as an attending student, an attendance rate equal to or higher than 75% must be reported.

The assessment of non-attending students is entirely based (100% of the final grade) on a mix of open and multiple-choice questions, incidents/cases and exercises, which aims to assess the student’s learning level of the theoretical models and the main concepts, methods and tools shared in the course.

• Texts and cases edited by the teachers and uploaded in the Bboard platform.

• Texts and cases edited by the teachers and uploaded in the Bboard platform.
• CHOPRA, MEINDL, Supply Chain Management. Strategy, Planning and Operation, Pearson Prentice Hall, 4th or 5th edition (chapters 1,2,3,6,8,9,10,15).