Supply Chain Management - Expertise Track

Supply Chain Management is an integral part of businesses and is essential to the success of a company and its customer satisfaction. Business success requires a perfect design, organisation, control and planning of the supply chain. The Supply Chain Management MBA Expertise Track offers courses in

• Supply Chain Integration for Competitive Advantage
• Managing Supply Change Trade-Offs and Alignment
• Industry 4.0 and the digital Supply Chain
• Sustainable Supply Chains for the Future

​​After completing this expertise track you will have gained the knowledge, insights and tools to successfully manage supply chain projects and trade-offs. You will be able to evaluate the impact of new technologies on the supply chain and you will understand how the supply chain can play a fundamental role in making business more sustainable.

Supply Chain Integration for Competitive Advantage
According to Chopra & Meindl’s definition a supply chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in fulfilling a customer request. This clearly confirms the view that when looking at supply chains, we cannot stop at the level of individual companies, but we need to look at optimisation potential downstream as well as upstream in the chain or network. In this course you will obtain a broad understanding of the basics of interfirm collaboration in supply chains, particularly looking at operational and strategic dimensions of the areas of purchasing and procurement. This workshop-based course provides you an overview of the tools needed for successfully managing supply chain collaborations.

Managing Supply Chain Trade-Offs and Alignment
Many decisions in the supply chain have multiple potential consequences, not necessarily all favourable to the company. The cross-functional or even cross-company nature of supply chain makes that in many occasions the pros and cons of a single decision are not equally spread across the stakeholders involved, Taking this into consideration, it becomes clear that managing such trade-offs is a big challenge. In this course alignment is the critical word and we zoom in to alignment from three different angles: supply chain decisions and working capital; Sales & Operations Planning / Integrated Business Planning (S&OP and IBP); and Purchasing & supplier collaboration.

Industry 4.0 and the Digital Supply Chain
It seems clear that we are right in the middle of a technological paradigm shift and some even speak about the 6th Kondratieff or Schumpeter wave we are entering into, or the 4th Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). It also seems clear that this amount of technological change will have a profound impact on the supply chain. The term “no-touch supply chain” has already been coined in a number of platforms. In this course we will explore these technological developments. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Big Data, Virtual and Augmented reality, and the concept of digital twins will be placed in the context of the supply chain area, so that you will understand what these technologies are about, but moreover how to evaluate the opportunities and threats from the perspective of business and supply chain.

Sustainable Supply Chains for the Future
There is a growing understanding of the limitations of resources on the planet. Companies are increasingly expected to behave like “responsible citizens” and climate change is solidly on the map of politicians and business people alike. In this course, you will learn how to put some well-known frameworks, like CSR, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Triple Bottom Line and the Circular Economy into the context of supply chain management. We will look at how the supply chain can play a fundamental role in making business more sustainable in the long run. As part of this course, a business simulation game, called The Blue Connection, will be used. In this simulation game, you will work with fellow students in teams to turn a lossmaking company around and make it more circular in order to become more profitable.