Course Descriptions

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a cross-functional discipline concerned with the movement of products, the use of business resources, the flow of information, and the deployment of services in the value chain. 

In this introductory course to SCM, students are provided with a comprehensive overview of the business processes, value creating activities, and best practices for a supply chain – from forecasting and demand management, to sourcing and procurement, to sales and operations planning, and through logistics (i.e., warehousing, distribution and transportation), out to the customer.

The course covers both the tactical and strategic perspectives of SCM, and is based on supply chain operations in the real world.  Quantitative models are introduced as needed. The course pinpoints the role of supply chain in the overall business strategy of the firm and its relationship to other functional areas of the firm.  This course seeks to:

1. Provide a comprehensive overview of SCM-related business processes and problems, and pinpoint the strategic role of SCM and relationship to other business disciplines.
2. Equip students with SCM best practices and related analytical models/tools.
3. Provide a roadmap to more specialized courses on SCM-related topics.

Course Relationship with Others in the Program

The proposed course focuses on the fundamental concepts of SCM and complements the core courses offered by other RBS departments by (1) showing how SCM, together with other disciplines, contributes to the mission of the firm; (2) introducing practical issues and challenges in managing the resource flows for products and services, and showing how cross-functional approaches can lead to effective business solutions; and (3) pinpointing the relationship between SCM and other business disciplines. For example, this course discusses techniques for reducing cash-to-cash cycle times and the cost of goods as they flow through the supply chain, the impact of supply chain practice on working capital, and the profitability growth due to better channel coordination. This course also covers the fundamentals of supply chain project management.  

In today’s competitive global marketplace, all companies face unprecedented pressures to create both shareholder and customer value. A superior procurement and strategic sourcing capability can increase shareholder returns by up to 15%, while improving the level of service to customers. The course material will focus on the fundamental tools, techniques, sourcing strategies, and processes used by world-­‐class firms.  Case studies and exercises are introduced to connect the course materials to real-­‐world practice. Students who take this course will be thoroughly prepared for procurement and sourcing positions at global firms.

The course covers both the tactical and strategic perspectives of global procurement and strategic sourcing, and is based on global procurement and strategic sourcing practices in the real world. Quantitative models, strategies, analytical frameworks, and tools are introduced as needed.

This course seeks to:

1. Provide a strategic overview of the business benefits and value of world-­‐class procurement organizations. 
2. Help students understand the key strategies, activities/processes, organizational considerations, goals, and deliverables of modern global procurement and sourcing organizations
3. Allow students to practice applying modern procurement strategies, concepts, tools, theory, and principles to real-­‐world simulations and cases
4. Prepare students for entry level procurement and sourcing positions

Every business exists to serve the customer. Whether the business is in a business-to-business (B2B) market or business-to-consumer (B2C) market, being able to accurately forecast demand, manage inventory and fulfill customer orders within a competitive delivery lead time is a critical component of business success. This course focuses on important planning strategies and tools that are commonly used in business practice for demand planning and fulfillment of customer requirements. Major topics include:

1. Setting the context for demand planning
2. Common forecasting tools (e.g., Exponential smoothing and Winter’s method)
3. Continuous improvement in demand planning
4. Sales and operations planning (S&OP) and master production scheduling (MPS)
5. Inventory management (e.g., cycle and safety stock formula)
6. Fulfillment of customer orders and service requirements
7. E-retailing and e-fulfillment
8. Related Excel functions

The course is structured as a combination of lectures, in-class discussions and group projects including excel tasks and case study. Course website: http://blackboard.rutgers.edu. Please check this site at least twice a week. Announcements (including weather related), course materials and excel spreadsheets will be posted on this site.

Business Logistics and Transportation is designed to provide students with an introduction to both fundamental and advanced concepts of logistics and transportation. The course examines the design of channels of distribution, management of inventory, evaluation of transportation alternatives, information flow, facility location, outsourcing logistics operations through third-party relationships, and the rapidly expanding field of logistics information technology. It explores the principles of transportation with emphasis on transportation modal and intermodal operations (rail, highway, air, water, and pipeline transportation) and transportation management. The course also introduces the concept of manufacturing strategies used to convert inputs such as materials, labor, energy, equipment, information, and capital into finished goods and services. The planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling of all the resources needed to produce a company’s goods and services.

This courses provides an introduction to the classical foundations of project management. Explore modern real-­‐life project problems, and learn key concepts of initiating, planning, organizing, controlling, and running a project. Particular emphasis on projects in the area of supply chain management. Extensive use of case studies. The course will also make use of project management tools. This course follows accepted project management guidelines and applies these concepts to actual projects in the classroom.

This course seeks to:

1. Provide a comprehensive overview of project management-­‐related business processes and problems, and pinpoint the strategic role of project management and relationship to other business disciplines.
2. Equip students with project management best practices and related methods and tools.
3. Provide a roadmap to more advanced courses in PM and ultimately CAPM or PMP certification.

This course is intended to prepare students for management opportunities in service firms, which represent the fastest-growing sector of the economy. Indeed, service industries account for a clear leading employer of the workforce in U.S. other industrialized economies in the world. The service sector includes for-profit institutions and non-profit organizations. Examples of services include hospitality, education, legal, entertainment, financial, logistics, healthcare and government.

Outstanding service organizations are managed differently than their competitors. Unlike manufacturing-based companies, successful service organizations have many different performance measures of success such as the enthusiasm of the employees and quality of customer satisfaction. Beginning with the service encounter, service managers must blend marketing, technology, people, and information to achieve a distinctive competitive advantage.

This course provides a theoretical and an analytical overview of successful service firms. Students taking this course will study critical aspects of service management from an integrated viewpoint. Although this course focuses on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of operations, the material will also integrate marketing, strategy, information technology and organizational issues. Finally, this course is also intended to help students discover entrepreneurial opportunities in the vast service economy.

This experiential course builds upon academic Supply Chain Management (SCM) learnings by working on “real life” supply chain management projects requested by our Rutgers Center for Supply Chain Management Advisory Board companies and other corporate partners.

Students in this course must identify and understand the key issues, formulate models, complete analyses, and apply SCM course learnings to solve real-world problems. Faculty members whose expertise lies in a particular area are available to assist students with complexities of the projects. 

Projects change each semester depending on the current requirements of the clients, but always focus on specific issues within the supply chain.

Client visits may be included to better understand the project scope and work with the company executives.

The culmination of the project will be a formal presentation at the client to their SCM executives and management team along with delivery of a final report.  The presentation and report will include the Rutgers team approach, data analysis, findings and recommendations.

This course is run like a group independent study and may also be considered a group mini-internship. 

Examples of some previous projects:

Course Objectives

1. Apply academic learning’s to “real life” SCM project within tight schedule.
2. Enhance project management, presentation and team building skills.
3. Improve research and analysis skills, by identifying and using information to support and improve your project recommendation.

Supervised involvement in a private, public, or nonprofit organization providing the student with an opportunity to apply concepts learned in a class to the work environment.

Properly addressing risks and facing possible disruptions are of primary importance to supply chains. With the wake of high consequence disruptive events, risk identification and disruption response activities have become ever more critical. This course explores the area of Business Continuity and Risk Management in a comprehensive manner to provide for organizational resilience. Particular emphasis is placed on assessing threats which may lead to disastrous events, evaluating control alternatives and implementing strategies. Practical solutions to enable an organization to mitigate risk, manage crisis and recover after a disaster are discussed. The course is designed to expose the student to all aspects of a holistic Business Continuity and Risk Management program and to determine the most appropriate requirements.

There is global experience and examples that show how comprehensive organizational sustainability criteria (using Sustainable Development as a point of reference) integrated into the ‘upstream/downstream’ supply chain management/procurement decision-making process of public and private agencies, organizations and corporate entities. With your input and term research, you will see how these organizations can improve financial and environmental performance, while addressing ethics, social regeneration, resource/waste impacts (supply chain archaeology) and economic development concerns (e.g. the ‘triple bottom-line’). This course will allow students to participate in applied research (real-time projects currently being developed at Rutgers, in the U.S., and around the world; e.g. this semester you will be participating in at least two research projects that I am currently involved in … so you can explore the application of environmentally responsible supply chain and ‘green’ procurement principles across multiple national and international public/private sectors. This research will include designing supply chain management and procurement systems, which address environmental, social and ethical considerations in organizational and corporate policy, program and reporting (corporate social and environmental reporting - CSR). Research themes include (but are not limited to):

• supply chain management and procurement process,
• understanding sustainability concepts and framework, global warming, carbon and greenhouse gas emission, climate change
• supply chain archeology; source and landfill waste archeology
• African Sustainable Development; Mandela Washington Fellowship; Corporation
• greening the public and private supply chain management and procurement process,
• sustainable product design, development and marketing (product life cycle),
• green marketing and greenwashing (false labeling and environmental claims)
• the competitive green purchasing process,
• environmental legislation, policy design, development and performance measurement,
• developing green contracts,
• procurement which promotes low carbon emission considerations and zero waste (avoidance and minimization), closed-loop supply chains
• renewable energy, green buildings, warehouse, operations and facilities
• social and economic regeneration; civic infrastructure policy,
• ERP - e-procurement applications and sustainability, waste/energy tracking and reporting
• life cycling analysis/costing (LCA/C), return on investment (ROI), net present value modeling (NPV),
• corporate social and environmental reporting (CSR), community engagement and impact
• logistics and transportation

Provides a foundation for understanding the process integration of business-wide functions supported by ERP systems; examines the benefits of implementing ERP; investigates the guidelines for ERP system implementation and application; introduces SAP to illustrate the basic concepts, capabilities, and advantages of ERP.

This course focuses on the growing impact of technology, data, and online marketplaces on supply chain management. Students will receive hands-on training of Tableau, a best-in-class data visualization platform, and be exposed to multiple other real-world analytics tools demonstrated by industry experts. By utilizing engaging teaching tactics geared towards millennial learning styles, this course encourages big picture thinking on global eCommerce trends while teaching specific technical skills that are highly valued in today’s job market. 

This course provides fundamentals of six sigma, lean manufacturing, methodology and tools along with change management and other important strategies to improve the performance of business processes. Topics covered will include: six sigma improvement methodology and tools, lean thinking tools and cultural approach, dashboards, process mapping, applied statistics and other business improvement techniques.

Students will practice solving business problems and improving processes through lecture, exercises and project work. Students will gain an understanding of:

1. The strategic importance of business improvement
2. The need for fact-based leadership
3. How to apply Lean Six-Sigma improvement tools throughout the value chain

This course is focused on teaching you the fundamentals and concepts of Business Intelligence in Supply Chain & Marketing. It will help you to understand what business intelligence (BI) and big data are, what drives the adoption of BI by leading companies, what its components are and what the technical and organizational issues are that most affect BI’s success.

Supply Chain Analytics, that integrates supply chain management with data analytics, is an emerging and exciting area in high demand. This introduction course will show you real life stories and examples to demonstrate how analytics can be applied to various domains of a supply chain to generate a significant social / economic impact. You will learn about the job market trend, job requirement and preparation. Supply Chain Analytics is not just about problem solving, it is also about problem discovery. Throughout the course, you will build up your data-driven problem discovery and solving skills by doing multiple real-life homework in the area of supply chain management.

This course will help prepare students for more professional case analysis in academic courses, academic competitions, and corporate analysis and presentation.  It will prepare students for the challenges of how to approach, solve, and present solutions in a professional environment, for internships, co-ops, and career positions. The course is intended to improve skills and improve understanding of the structure of Case Interviews. This course is focused on improving knowledge of the tools and processes of analyzing a problem and building a solution. This course will also help students to better understand their role and how to succeed in Case Competitions.

This course seeks to:

1. Provide an understanding of the various requirements of analyzing a case for: Corporate presentations, Academic presentations, Case Competitions, and Case Interviews
2. Build a structured approach to analysis and presentation, including: Agenda, Proposal, Options, Methodology, Assumptions, Financial Impact, Operational Impact, Implementation Plan, Risks and Contingencies, and Support and Appendix
3. Develop skills in Unrehearsed, Impromptu, Written and other speaking methods. Use of supporting materials, engagement, and interaction
4. Review and understanding of tools, including:  DMAIC, Fishbone, 5-WHYs, EXCEL Skills, Graphs and Charts, Pivot Tables, Kraljic Matrix, Bubble Charts and more
5. Practice of Public Speaking, including Expression, Speed, Volume, Eye Contact, Engagement and more

Senior executives of leading companies understand the value of the supply chain as a critical driver of shareholder value. In many firms the supply chain includes most of the assets of the firm such as the majority of the inventory, 60 to 70% of the cost, and is the foundation for generating revenue by providing outstanding product availability.

Firms tend to view the supply chain as primarily a cost center. However, supply chains make revenues possible, and properly developed and managed, can improve profitability. Supply chain organizations of the future must focus on far more than just driving cost and improving product availability.

As Supply Chain organizations evolve from back office tactical operations into strategic functions driving bottom line profitability and enterprise value, it is becoming increasingly more important for supply chain professionals to engage as business partners and “speak the language” of the CFO. It is no longer sufficient for the supply chain organization to only assure continuous supply and drive down costs. Inside world-class organizations the supply chain function is viewed by senior leadership as a critical success factor to achieving optimal “financial health” reflected on the P&L, balance sheet and funds flow statements. This necessitates that supply chain professional understand the financial impacts of their decisions and actions and are adept at “pulling the right levers” to improve the firm’s financial scorecard.

Course Objectives

1. To provide an understanding of basic corporate accounting and the interrelation to supply chain actions and projects.
2. To decompose the supply chain elements which need to be designed and the related costs.
3. To understand the role of working capital across the supply chain and its impact on the financial statements of the business.
4. To understand the scorecard of the CFO and how the supply chain can help drive those metrics as well as how that view differs from what the CSCO measures.
5. To introduce tools and methods to enable both the identification of changes (i.e. strategies, investments, product flows, etc.) that add value, as well as the means to bring “economic justification” to those supply chain decisions and projects.

In today's competitive global pharmaceutical environment, more and more companies are faced with diminishing product pipelines, challenges developing innovative products, and generic competition due to loss of patent exclusivity. Traditional pharmaceutical companies now must find ways to minimize margin erosion through timely product development activities as well as tightly managed operations and supply chains. This concerted effort is the only way companies today will be able to compete and maintain profitability while meeting varying customer demand and product market requirements. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies are also challenged with global regulatory issues, pricing arbitrage, demand volatility constraints, product counterfeiting, rising commodity prices, and the overall complexity of operating in a competitive global environment. As a result of such changes to the pharmaceutical landscape, companies find themselves focusing on strategic supply chain, logistics and operations management areas to effectively impact the bottom line in order to stay competitive.

In light of the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry, executives are grappling with big questions:

1. How do we increase the value of our product pipeline while improving the efficiency of our product development and operations?
2. How can we exploit efficiencies through mergers and acquisitions, licensing, and post-merger integration and what does that mean for our business operations?
3. How do we build our capability to excel in strategic areas such as marketing and sales, supply chain management, and effective product commercialization strategies? As strategic alliances become a more important way to drive growth, how do we manage them more effectively as well as their associated operations?

Course Objectives

The objective of this course is to provide students with knowledge of pharmaceutical industry cost management structures, strategic sourcing processes, negotiation tactics, procurement processes and supply management strategies. With shorter product lifecycles and worldwide rivalries increasing, much success depends on effective global supply chain management being able to deliver the right product to the right market at the right time under the appropriate regulatory governance.

Supervised involvement in a private, public, or nonprofit organization providing the student with an opportunity to apply concepts learned in a class to the work environment.

Individual research and/or reading program under the guidance of a member of the department.

Examines major concepts, theories, and processes of negotiation; analyzes the dynamics of interpersonal and intergroup conflict and its resolution in managerial settings; explores the structural (e.g., parities, position, interests) and process-oriented dynamics that occur during the negotiation process.

Channels of distribution approach to the retailing function.The changing character of retail competition; relations between manufacturers and middlemen; procedures and problems of retail management. Emphasis on the smaller entrepreneur as well as the large retail organization. Case studies, field projects.

Study of the functions, concepts, and decisions required in the introduction, maintenance, and deletion of products. Special attention given to the areas of new-product need, new-product development, and product planning and strategy.

Analysis of industrial marketing planning and activities; the management of distribution channels, costs, and policy development.

Techniques of marketing research and the role of the marketing research department in a business structure. Emphasizes the use of analytical techniques in the design and conduct of marketing research. Problem formulation; collecting and organizing respondent data; and evaluation and use of research findings.

Problems, policies, and functions of sales management as the vital link between selling and marketing. Role of the sales manager in the development of a successful sales force. Topics include territory and market analyses, compensation, sales planning, and control.