Supply chains used to be relatively simple networks of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers. In these straightforward networks, command and control structures were clear and a manager’s chief role was to maximise the efficiency of manufacturing and logistics operations. All executives involved in operations, manufacturing, logistics, procurement, marketing or IT know that such simplicity is a thing of the past. With higher customer sophistication, increasing network fragmentation, and an ever-shifting balance of power, the primary role of the supply chain, the coordination of material, information and cash flows, has become complex.
How to optimise crucial material, information and financial flows in complex supply ecosystems?
The Supply Chain Management (SCM) programme focuses on improving these flows in the supply chain by optimising business processes, organisational structures and enabling technologies. It gives executives a range of skills and frameworks helping them, for example, understand how product and process development can be integrated into the supply chain or figure out what really drives financial performance. It is also clear that there are many new opportunities emerging with technological breakthroughs and global manufacturing making new sorts of partnerships along the supply chain possible. Knowing how to deploy enabling technologies rapidly and effectively can vastly increase both the efficiency of network operations and the effectiveness of customer service.
By exploring the most recent thinking on designing and coordinating supply chain networks, managers will learn how to transform their existing supply relationships and create new ones. |
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