Foundations of Supply Chain Management

This unit introduces core supply chain concepts, frameworks, and processes that underpin effective supply chain and logistics operations. Students will learn to map flows, prioritize goals, apply industry frameworks, assess trade-offs across sourcing, production, transportation and returns, and define basic performance and technology measures to improve visibility and resilience.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze core supply chain components, flows, and stakeholder roles by producing a mapped supply chain for a given product that identifies upstream and downstream flows and critical touchpoints
• Apply the GSCF and APQC frameworks to segment a supply chain and prioritize goals, documenting rationale and expected impacts on cost, service, and risk
• Evaluate trade-offs among sourcing strategies, production planning, transportation mode choices, and returns management by comparing at least three alternatives and recommending the best option with supporting metrics
• Design a basic performance measurement and visibility plan that selects process metrics, identifies analytics level and relevant technologies (e.g., TMS, IoT), and explains how the plan would reduce obsolescence and improve disruption readiness