Course: Operations and Supply Chain Management

Course Code: MGOM6005

This course emphasises learning about the complex operations and infrastructure required for (1) product development and manufacture and (2) service design and delivery.  The course explores the role of the supply chain and the design and operation of productive systems and processes in manufacturing and service environments.  Emphasis is placed on competitiveness and the implications for organisational strategy.  Supply chain management is concerned with the coordination of information, material and financial flows from suppliers to consumers.  It integrates all the interests within and external to an organisation that are critical to achieving competitive advantage.

This course will equip students with the basic analytical skills that are required in the contemporary operations environment.  Basic managerial issues related to the operations of both manufacturing and service industries will be analysed.  The course is designed to guide the development of important managerial skills needed to ensure the continuing effective contribution of organisational processes and systems to its competitive position and performance.

Students develop the ability to conceptualise, design and implement supply chains aligned with product, market and customer characteristics. Business competition is now between supply networks rather than individual corporations. Managing the flow of products, information and revenue across supply chains differentiates the ability of supply networks to fulfill customer needs. Students develop the ability to evaluate how information flows can substitute for the stock of physical resources, such as inventory and why such systems succeed or fail. They assess how internet technologies, dynamic markets and globalisation are impacting supply chain strategies and practices, including logistics, digital coordination of decisions and resources, inventory and risk management, procurement and supply contracting, product and process design and revenue management.