Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Supply Chain Management

Instructor: Amar Sapra

Office: B-203
Email: amar.sapra@iimb.ac.in

Course Objectives:

Supply chain management (SCM) is the entire process of materials and products moving
into, through and out of the firm. Supply chain activities-- communication, inventory
management, warehousing, transportation and facility location, have been performed
since the start of commercial activity. SCM costs can be as high as 40% of total value added
in some industries like petroleum and chemicals. Firms have started focusing on SCM as a
source of competitive advantage. The objective of this course is to provide students with
tools by which they can analyze supply chains in different industries.

Course Topics:

1. Introduction to logistics and supply chain management.

• Issues in supply chain management
• Mapping product characteristics with supply chain design

2. Inventory management
• Recap of inventory control (covered in the core course): Types of service level
• Inventory allocation issues; efficient vs responsive supply chain

3. Sourcing and supply management.

• Buyer-supplier relationship
• Information sharing between buyers and suppliers
• Contracts between buyers and suppliers; pricing in supply chains; bidding and
auctions; electronic procurement

4. Understanding responsiveness in supply chain

• Impact of uncertainty on lead-time
• Product variety and manufacturing flexibility

5. Supply chain analysis of different industries.

• Supply chain issues in different industries: Analysis of supply chains in
electronics and fashion industries
• Internet retailing

6. Service supply chain

• Transportation network design
• Distribution of services

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 • Contracts in services
• Yield management

Methodology:
The course will consist of mixture of lectures and cases. The cases will be discussed in the
class. Each group will submit three cases. Two of the cases will be evaluated for
correctness. One case will be evaluated only for completeness. The due date of each
case report will be strictly enforced.

Performance Evaluation: The weightage for the three components are given below.

Cases (Evaluated for correctness) 12% (Group Evaluation)

Case (Evaluated for completeness) 3% (Group Evaluation)
Supply Chain Game 10% (Group Evaluation)
Class Participation 10%
Mini Assignments 5%
Mid-Term 25%
End-Term 35%

Teaching Material: A soft copy of the lecture notes (most of them) and spreadsheets for
case-studies will be available on Moodle.

Text Book: Supply Chain Management by Chopra and Kalra (7th Edition)

Supply Chain Game: Details about the game will be given to you later.

Tentative Schedule

Date Topics Case-studies for class

discussion
L-1 Introduction to supply chain management
Readings: Chapters 1, 2, 3 (TB)
Module I: Inventory in supply chain
L-2, 3 Fill rate, newsvedor model, multi-item newsvendor
model
Readings: Chapter 13 (TB)
Module II: Supply chain coordination
L-4 Information sharing and supply chain coordination Barilla (CP)
Readings: Chapter 10 (TB)
L-5 Sourcing contracts between buyers and suppliers:
Revenue sharing, buyback policy
Readings: Chapter 15 (TB), Aligning incentives in
supply chains (CP)
Module III: Supply chain and logistics network design

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 L-6 Distribution systems for internet retailing. Amazon.com: SCM
Transportation network design: Hub and spoke vs (CP), Amazon.com’s
direct route. Drivers of modes of transport. European Distribution
Reading: Chapters 4 and 14 (TB) Strategy (CP)
L-7 Local sourcing vs offshoring. Fuyao* (CP)
Reading: Preparing for disruptions through early
detections (CP)
L-7, 8 Models for facility location Coolwipes (TB)
Reading: Chapter 5
Module IV: Supply chain strategy
L-8, 9 Vertical integration and outsourcing; supply VF Brands* (CP)
management (Due on 17-Jan)
Reading: What is the right supply chain for your
product? (CP)
L-10,11 Global supply chain management simulation
L-12 Guest lecture
Module V: Pricing and revenue management
L-13 Pricing and revenue management in services
Readings: Chapter 16 (TB)
Module VI: Supplier management
L-14 Supplier selection through procurement auctions Betapharm* (CP)
and supplier management
Reading: Creating the ideal supplier scorecard ^
Module VII: Supply chain analytics
L-15, 16, Application of Monte Carlo simulation to supply Konys (CP),
17 chain problems: (a) Analysis of sourcing contracts Winner Apparel (TB)
with long-term contracts, spot contracts and
options contracts, (b) Multiple ordering
opportunities for a short life-cycle product
Optional Reading: Procurement risk management
at HP (CP)
Optional Reading: Introduction to simulation
modeling (CP)
L-18,19 Forecasting Specialty Packaging
Chapter 7 (TB) Corporation (TB)
L-19,20 Aggregate planning Wilkins (CP)
Chapter 8 (TB)
L-20 Future of supply chains; course wrap-up
* Case submissions required on that date.
^ A link to the article will be provided later.

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