Foundations of Supply Chain

This unit introduces core supply chain management concepts, frameworks, and building blocks used to design, operate, and measure effective supply chains. Students learn to map flows, balance supply and demand, select transportation and returns strategies, and apply basic performance metrics and digital-readiness principles to improve visibility and resilience.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and map end-to-end supply chain components, flows, and stakeholder roles using the GSCF and APQC process frameworks and produce a diagram that identifies primary process groups and interfaces.
• Apply demand-supply balancing techniques, strategic sourcing concepts, and basic production planning rules to develop a simple inventory replenishment and production schedule that meets specified service-level targets.
• Evaluate transportation modes, network design alternatives, and reverse-logistics options and recommend a cost/time/service trade-off solution for a sample product scenario.
• Demonstrate the selection and use of supply chain performance metrics and analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive) and create a digital-readiness checklist (including TMS, sensors/IoT, and Industry 4.0 considerations) to improve visibility and mitigate disruption risk.