By the end of the course, students will understand the following issues:

• key methods for supporting supply chain decision making
• which key managerial levers are available for improving supply chain profitability
• current challenges SCM and how to respond to them
• managing data and building decision support models in spreadsheets
  

To achieve superior supply chain performance under rapidly changing market conditions, managers and analysts need to complement logistics strategy with qualitative and quantitative skills. In this course, students will be challenged to identify supply chain inefficiencies in case studies and examples, by designing and using appropriate spreadsheet models. To allocate as much time as possible to problem solving and case discussions in class, students are asked to prepare assignments in teams before class.

The course wants to help students to use widely available spreadsheet software (e.g. Microsoft EXCEL, LibreOffice CALC etc.) to diagnose existing supply chains and assist them in using qualitative and quantitative tools to improve supply chain design and management. Important topics addressed are problem solving strategies, data processing and analysis, decision analysis, optimization and simulation analysis. Guest lectures will offer addition insight in decision-making in specific industries or supply chain settings.

Guerrero, H. (2010). Excel Data Analysis: Modeling and Simulation, Springer Verlag, 338 p., ISBN 978-3-642-10834-1