This course provides an enhanced understanding of emerging issues and challenges in supply chain management (SCM) and social responsibility. SCM is defined as the ‘planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities …includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners [and] integrates supply and demand management within and across companies’. This holistic view of SCM allows identification of emerging developments and/ or trends that have the potential to alter or disrupt competitive balance, planning assumptions, cost structures, and conventional timelines in supply chain practices.
Indicative content includes but is not limited to a brief overview of SCM; discussion of important and active trends emerging at the time of the course; investigation of their implications for SCM and related activities; and development of potential solutions to address disruptive implications on global and national levels.
For example, indicative topics are important at the beginning of 2020 include, inter alia, supply chain (in)visibility and (de)globalisation; logistics skills, skills shortages and human resources; technology such as the internet of things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, blockchain, cyber-security and artificial intelligence (AI)/ machine learning; sustainability, corporate responsibility including migration and supply chain slavery, and the circular economy; and (de)consumption, e-commerce and services.
- Teacher: Wojciech Piotrowicz
- Teacher: Virva Tuomala
- Teacher: Diego Vega Bernal