Course Overview
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All Levels About Supply Chain Management Training
If you ever sat through a TV commercial, drove to your nearest store, and bought your favorite item at an unbelievable price, you can thank the manufacturer’s supply chain managers for a job well done. In a nutshell, supply chain management is the sum of all activities that are involved to reach a product into your hands. It includes everything right from the time the raw materials are extracted, to the moment you fish out the credit card for payment and take the product home. Supply chain management focuses on forecasting and planning, buying, product assembling, moving, storing, and tracking a product till it reaches the customer.
Is supply chain management important for an organization? Absolutely yes. Companies like Toyota, Hindustan Unilever, Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble, Samsung and others, consider it as a major factor for their success. The supply chain system makes it possible to manufacture and deliver products faster, better, and cheaper. It holds good for Nike shoes, Starbucks espresso, Apple iPods and every other product that you enjoy every day.
Not only is the supply chain system important for the leading multinational companies, in today’s fast paced and global field, it offers tremendous career opportunities. There’s a high demand of supply chain managers, but with limited supply, which means there’s a wide range of job options and career advancement prospects.
Almost all companies, irrespective of the type and size, need well-prepared and motivated individuals to become their future supply chain leaders.
Importance
Notwithstanding its importance, an efficient supply chain management system is one of the most misunderstood and underrated factors of business management. A supply chain system, which can be local, regional, or multinational, controls the flow of product and information, and ultimately, the flow of revenues.
At this point, the importance of supply chain should be obvious i.e. streamlining and managing this crucial process. But there’s a lot more to it. It also has a social angle. Reaching relief material in remote areas during floods, droughts, and other emergencies, is also dependent on a well-oiled supply chain management system.
Customer appreciation
At the far end of the entire system is the last component: customer. The supply chain ends here. But supply chain is no assembly line. It’s not a single physical process. Rather, it’s a structure of materials, order, supply, demand, analytics, partner organizations, and as many aspects a company feels necessary. Whatever be the situation, supply chain ultimately exists for serving the customer.
- Death by delay: An efficient supply chain management system delivers the best quality products on time to the customers. There can be no room for delays with the shipping company, neither should be there any delay with the manufacturers. All these are controlled by supply chain managers. They, from time to time, have to face the fact that something went wrong in the chain that led to a delay. They have to fix customer satisfaction.
- An unexpected requirement: The entire supply chain management system calls for an enormous amount interpersonal skills. Customer support is only a part of the job. A well-oiled supply chain system means satisfied customers.
The bigger picture
Many companies and supply chain managers make the mistake of focusing only within their own organization. They forget the fact that supply chain can be truly functional only when the bigger picture is considered.
There’s an old saying, which is true nonetheless: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The same goes for supply chain. Each component must be considered vital like all others. The responsibility of a company’s suppliers and partners are extremely important. If one cog fails, the entire chain can collapse. Customers can feel the effect immediately.
A supply chain is not the fill-it-and-forget-it variety. It needs comprehensive care and constant maintenance. It’s the responsibility of the supply chain manager to ensure that the company’s partners conform to the same high expectation.
Course description
The supply chain management course description is as follows.
- Introduction: The syllabus of the course is introduced in this section.
- Retail supply chain: In this section you learn about the supply chain system of manufacturers and retailers, similarities and differences in the manufacturing sector and retail supply chain elements, retail as a part of retail management and its supply chain planning and execution, strategic and tactical operations of the retail supply chain and its maturity.
- Category management: You are introduced to category management and the process category division. You also learn about category roles, assessment and performance measures, strategies and tactics, implementation and review to enable components of category management, and finally, the challenges of a category captain.
- Merchandise budgeting: This section is divided into four parts. It covers types and benefits of merchandising, merchandise hierarchy and forecasting, budgeting, and open to buy control.
- Assortment and space management: Here you are introduced to the framework and benefits of assortment, objectives of assortment strategy and the assortment selection process, assortment planning and the role of data and IT in assortment management, types of store clustering and its benefits, the advantages of space management and integration with every state of assortment and space planning, and the planogram process and its management.
- Retail pricing challenges: In this section you learn about the challenges to retail pricing, managing price elasticity and the retail pricing lifecycle, objectives of retail promotion, promotional measures and KPIs, decisional points in promotional tools for retailers, information used to plan promotions, optimization of the promotion process, and managing retail markdowns.
- Retail product lifecycle management: This section is divided into seven parts. You learn about challenges for the retailer regarding product design, types of private labels and their advantages and disadvantages, supply chain decisions at private levels, retail and green design packaging, and using IT for retail product lifecycle management.
- Retail distribution replenishment: The topics covered in this section includes retail distribution models, vendor managed inventory and its process, VMICRP cautions and advantages, CPFR process, route accounting, direct store delivery, types of DSD and handheld devices, and how IT can help in retail distribution replenishment.
- Retail logistics: This section is divided into 10 parts. It covers transport planning and the legs in transportation, drivers tools, constraints in transportation and the execution process, transportation cycle and use of IT in transport management, measures of transport management and green transportation, functions and overview of retail warehousing, value added services of a retail warehouse and introduction to docking, types of cross-docking and their working, applications and advantages, why inventory is necessary, cost of inventory and the inventory pyramid, inventory factors to consider and inventory measures.
- Retail supplier relationship management: The topics covered include important concepts involved in supplier relationship management, merchandise procurement and decisions in this regard, pros and cons of global sourcing, and the key processes involved.
- Retail customer relationship management: In this section you’ll be introduced to retail customer service and the customer service mix. The topics include the customer service pyramid and customer service over the retail life cycle, how to better customer service for retailers, order management process and concepts of a perfect order, multichannel retailing, retail returns, reverse logistics and its process, retail loyalty programs, and retail kiosks and advanced payment solutions.
- Managing supply chain for various retail formats: This section begins with examples of types of retailers, organized B2C, and retail formats. You go on to learn about cash and carry and rural retailing, non-store based retail formats, online shopping and airport retailing, and service retail banking and couriering.
- Apparel and footwear retailing supply chain: Divided into five parts, this section helps you understand the development process and characteristics of the supply chain system of the particular industry sector, pre-pack planning, supply chain innovations in apparel retail and footwear, and a case study of Khadim’s Footwear.
- IT for retail: The final part of the courseware deals with retail technology, and the need for an IT maturity model in retail, barcode RFID, retail ERP and analytics, and POS systems and mobile applications.
Target audience
While anyone interested to pursue a career in supply chain management can take this course, it’s specially aimed at business and management students, operations students, people wanting a diploma in retail and/or supply chain management, professionals working in the supply chain department of a company, and management professionals. Undergraduate students can also take this course to build a foundation in supply chain management.
Prerequisites
A passion to learn about the burgeoning global retail industry, and the supply chain management that feeds it growth, is the most important prerequisite to take up this course. The syllabus begins from scratch and hence it’s easy to understand.
Requirements
Entry-level positions like purchasing assistants, assistant buyers, and sales trainees are usually available within smaller companies, for people having a high school diploma. But bigger organizations like manufacturing firms or retail distributors are likely to seek a college degree followed by a formal training in their hiring practices. A master’s degree is required to enter managerial positions.
Career benefits
Here are some of the major benefits of supply chain management training.
- Value: Adopt value as a guiding principle for delivering superior managerial performance along with significant business impact.
- Alignment: Discover the tools for aligning the core processes to achieve operational excellence.
- Sustainability: Understand the framework for managing risks and opportunities towards a sustainable supply chain management on a global scale.
Other benefits
Following are some added benefits of the course.
- Learn from an internationally recognized team of experts having real-world experiences.
- Demonstrate mastery of your specific skills to present and future employers.
- Network with other professionals involved in supply chain management.
- Extract a competitive edge, courtesy practical knowledge and applications.
- Enhance problem identification and resolving skills.
- Build your leadership skills through projects, coursework, and mock situations.
- Get a prompt return on investment via application-based strategies.
What you learn
- Developing performance measures for your company and the supply chain department in particular.
- Reducing costs through better allocation and management of your spending.
- Streamlining, optimizing, and consolidating your distributor network.
- Reducing inventories to bring down carrying costs.
- Incorporating new technologies for better managing your supply chain system.
- Improving customer service, supplier performance and accountability.
FAQs: Some general questions
- How important is supply chain?
The supply chain system ensures uninterrupted availability of water, food, medicines, and other key materials to all of us who want to survive.
- What is the role of supply chain in a company?
Supply chain management is vital for the success of a company. It was once considered as a background operational activity. But today it’s recognized as a strategic arsenal to generate customer loyalty.
- What are the skills required to build a career in supply chain management?
There are a variety of roles in the supply chain domain. Analytical and communication skills, flexibility, ability to work in a team, project management, and a desire to succeed are some of the necessary traits required.
Testimonials
Jessica Edwards
“I have already begun to realize the benefits of the course. The exhaustive study has turned into an invaluable opportunity for me in my company. The management was very supportive. I am now the co-lead of a global project.”
Sunita Agarwal
“As a novice in the supply chain management system, I was looking for a course that would challenge me to think beyond the traditional techniques and norms. With an experienced and professional faculty heading the program, the course utilizes latest technology with challenging case studies for promoting individual thought. You can maintain your full-time job and at the same time pursue the course to better your career.”
Conrad Torres
“The course has given me the perfect exposure to supply chain management which I was looking for all these years. It’s just perfect to trigger my career to the next level. The professors are all leading industry experts who are committed to student success.”
Eric Snyder
“I joined the program with no background in supply chain management. But the experience was tremendous. Not only did I learn from the top-notch faculty, I was also able to connect to a peer group that brought diverse skill sets. Highest marks to EduCba for this wonderful program.”
