Supply Chain Logistics and Operations Management

(Dr. L. Lei, Rutgers Business School, Spring 2007)

Text book:      Production and Operations Analysis (5th Edition), Steven Nahmias, Irwin, 2004. ISBN# 0-07-231265-3                       

Instructor:       Dr. L. Lei, 213 Ackerson Hall, Phone (973)353-5185, Fax (973)353-5003

 

Objectives:      This course focuses on managing business operations in a supply chain environment.  It is about managing the process to achieve the profitability of a business. It helps students with an understanding of critical issues encountered in managing the operations of supply chains. It gives students the concept of business engineering. It offers students quantitative techniques and best-practice strategies for cost-effective solutions to these critical issues and for continuous improvement of a company’s operation efficiency and strategic position in today’s highly dynamic and competitive marketplace. 

 

Major topics (Suggested reading material):

 

1. Introduction (Chapters 1, 6)

. Cost, profitability, and business processes

. Designing the supply chain for the profitability

. The bullwhip effect and supply chain coordination

. Paper: It’s a Flat World, After all. T. L. Friedman. The New York Times,  April 3, 2005 (http:///www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine).

 

2. Strategic Demand-Supply Planning Techniques (Chapter 3)

. Overview of demand-supply planning strategies

. Aggregate planning techniques and analysis

. Linear programming as a demand-supply planning tool

. Case study: Demand-supply planning optimization for Energy Boat Corp. L. DeCandia and L. Lei. Rutgers Center for Supply Chain Management, 2005.

. Case study: The P&T Company case. Introduction to Operations Research, F.  Hillier and J. Lieberman. McGraw Hill, seventh-edition, 2001.

 

3. Planning and managing inventories in a supply chain (Chapters 4, 5)

. The impact of inventory policies on profit margin

. Theoretical inventory models

. Quantity discount analysis

. Optimal inventory policies for multi-player supply chains

. The role of safety stocks in a supply chain

. The classical newsboy model: deriving the optimal inventory control policies and applications

. The lot size - reorder point (Q, R) systems  

. The service level approaches  

. Managing safety inventory in a supply network and the Square Root Law

. Case study: A make or buy analysis for Wagner Fabricating Company,  An Introduction to Management Science.  D. Anderson, D. Sweeney and T. Williams, 1997, West Publishing.

 

4. Project Management and Risk Control (Chapter 9)

. Introduction to project planning and control  

. The critical path method (CPM) 

. The program evaluation and review technique (PERT) 

. Risk management and Parkinson’s Law

. Project budgeting, resource leveling, and tradeoff analysis

. Case study: Van Allen Construction Company, from <Project Management: Tools and Trade-offs>, T. Klastorin, 2004, Wiley Publishing Company.      

 

5. Supply Chain Distribution Network Designs (Handout #1)

. The needs for supply chain network design/redesign

. Strategic & operational factors for distribution mgmnt

. Managing the process of network design

. Optimization techniques for facility location decisions

- Gravity location models

- Mathematical Programming based network optimization models

. Case study: Relocation Decisions for the Dairy Plant, from <Strategic Supply Chain Logistics Management>, L. DeCandia and L. Lei, 2008     

. Paper: Where is the World ? The Best Locations for Supply Chain Management  Facilities. T.A. Foster. Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies, March 2005.

 

6. Quality Management (Chapter 11)

. Introduction to total quality management and six-sigma

. The cost and effect diagram and the Pareto charts

. Overview of statistical process control tools

. Case study: C&R Catalysts, Operations Now. Byron J. Finch.  McGraw-Hill and Irwin, 2006.

 

Grading: Midterm 40%, Final 50%, Participation 10%