Supply chain logistics

Technology drives supply chain logistics, enabling e-commerce through ERP, EDI, EFT, and online platforms, shrinking supply chains and boosting customer satisfaction and return on assets.

navigate a changing business environment by embracing e-business, globalization, outsourcing, cross-docking, and lean six sigma while leveraging 3pl and 4pl models, risk management, and supplier consolidation to improve resilience.

Examine new warehouse operations to boost logistics performance, including postponement of final packaging, make-to-order customization, factory gate pricing, cross docking, direct deliveries, and vendor managed inventory powered by IT.

Aligns the supply chain with corporate and business strategies through a long-term logistics strategy of goals, plans, policies, culture, and resources, detailing activities like movement of materials and SOPs.

Design a logistics strategy by aligning mission, corporate, and business strategies with internal capabilities and market context, then assess current logistics and implement the chosen plan.

Explore two location models: the infinite set approach and the feasible set approach, to determine warehouse location, weighing near customers vs near suppliers, trade-offs in cost and customer service.

Explore lean versus agile logistics, where lean cuts waste and cost, and agile centers on customer demand as the driving force, delivering flexible, rapid responses to changing markets.

Translate strategic logistics aims into execution by guiding decisions from strategic to execution, and address implementation challenges like not feasible plans, change resistance, and resource constraints.

Explore logistics infrastructure and how organizational structures - functional, product, hybrid, matrix, and self-managed groups - shape supply chain integration, including export-import strategy, warehouse and transport decisions, partnerships, and erp-driven information flow.

Explore typical and alternative supply chain structures from tiered supplier networks to distributors and retailers, and assess factors like product complexity, perishability, and profitability.

Explore multiple supply chain structures, from single-source manufacturing to multi-supplier networks with distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, and learn how consolidation and direct shipping shape global logistics.

Causes conflicting objectives and duplicate efforts across suppliers, inbound receiving, warehousing, and distribution, fragmenting information flow and increasing uncertainty in the supply chain.

Integrated logistics enhances overall supply chain performance by aligning procurement, transportation, production, and stock control through internal cooperation and a holistic strategy, balancing quality and cost.

Explore internal and external logistics integration across the full supply chain, curb the bullwhip effect, and improve information flow through CRM and SRM-driven collaboration.

Identify the hierarchy of geographical decisions for warehouse locations, from strategic regions to operational sites, guided by culture, cost, customers, and suppliers, then audit and select the location.

Assess the location of customers and markets to improve service and lower transport costs. Align supplier and material locations with infrastructure, like rail or roads, to support efficient distribution.

Explore two location models in supply chain logistics: the infinite set approach and the feasible set approach, weighing proximity to customers versus suppliers and computing transport costs.

Compute the center of gravity of supply and demand with weighted coordinates x dot and y dot to locate the manufacturing facility, shown via an ABC example.

Compare infinite set and feasible set approaches to locating a warehouse or distribution center, using variable costs, inward and outward transportation, and rectilinear distance to estimate optimal facility placement.

Learn a qualitative score model for location selection in supply chain logistics, guiding procurement and project planning by evaluating availability, workforce, regulations, stability, infrastructure, climate, and market proximity.

Learn to use the score model to compare locations: define factors, assign weights, score sites, and pick the highest total, with phase-based emphasis on cost and lead time.

Explore network models, using the single maiden model to locate a warehouse by minimizing average delivery distance via the shortest path and the inward and outward transportation costs.

Locate depots or central distribution centers to minimize the maximum delivery time in a road network, using 15-minute thresholds, and apply feasible set, score model, and maiden problem approaches.

Unlock how globalization shapes logistics and international trade, boosting purchasing power and cross-border supply chain efficiency. Explore how e-commerce, trade agreements, and multimodal transport lower costs and expand markets.

You explore six foreign market entry options - licensing, franchising, exporting finished goods, local distribution, assembly outsourcing, joint ventures, and full production - while highlighting risk, investment, tariffs, and control tradeoffs.

Compare national, international, multinational, and global company structures and learn how global operations streamline design, lean manufacturing, and centralized management for efficient supply chains and economy of sales.

Global supply chains rely on outsourced logistics and centralized production, sourcing materials worldwide to reduce costs, while postponement delays final assembly to the distribution center.

Identify global logistics problems spanning physical barriers like tariffs and borders, and technical barriers such as document accuracy and unloading; amplify effects of exchange rates, financing, infrastructure, customs, and intermediaries.

Learn transportation planning in the supply chain across strategic design, tactical decisions, and operational execution. Understand costs per mile, carrier options, and factors like weight, distance, and mode.

Explore the modes of transport—rails, air, pipelines, and intermodal options—and learn how cost, speed, capacity, and reliability influence choosing the right shipping method for a product.

Determine transport ownership and transfer points using incoterms like cif, ex works, and fob. Compare owning a fleet versus using 3pl and the impact on cost, control, and intermediaries.

Explore outsourcing logistics and the make-or-buy decision between in-house fleets and third party logistics, or fourth party logistics, focusing on core competence, cost efficiency, and strategic or operational gains.

Analyze freight costs with freight analysis, detailing primary costs (capital, fuel and lubricants, operation and maintenance) and vehicle-related costs, and emphasize efficiency and reverse logistics to close supply loop.

Unpack the reverse logistics framework as a closed-loop flow from customer to manufacturer, explaining drivers, return types, recovery options like repair, refurbish, remanufacture, recycling, incineration, and policy.

Explore how reverse supply chains manage acquisition, reverse logistics, inspection and disposition, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and marketing of recovered products, and assess centralized versus decentralized hubs for return management.

Learn the lean waste hierarchy—reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, dispose—and key recovery options like repair, refurbish, remanufacture, and recycling. Explore closed-loop reverse logistics and value capture in supply chains.