Docente

prof. Pietro ROMANO

Credits

6 CFU

Language

Italian

Objectives

The course aims to give students the fundamentals of Logistics and Supply Chain Management (purchasing/supplier management, supply network design/configuration, physical distribution/transportation).

Acquired skills

- To understand the differences between Supply Chain Management, integrated logistics, materials management, physical distribution, purchasing and supplier management. 
- To know the main activities in purchasing and procurement.
- To be able to recognize - by analyzing the corporate balance - the industrial contexts in which the role of buyers more important.
- To know the main forms of contractual agreement between customers and suppliers, as well as the models supporting the choice of the most suitable ones.
- To know the decisional variables supporting the managerial choices about vertical integration/outsourcing, facilities localization, network capacity balancing.
- To know the risk pooling effect and its impact on decisions regarding the centralization and decentralization of warehouses.
- To know the main distribution strategies, as well as the models supporting the choice of the most suitable ones.
- To know the characteristics of main transportation modes, as well as the models supporting the choice of the most suitable ones.
- To select the transportation carrier minimizing the total inventory and transportation costs.
- To determine the optimal configuration of the supply network by using heuristic algorithms, exact algorithms, and simulation.

Lectures and exercises (Topics and specific content)

1 - Terminology and definitions: supply network, supply chain management, integrated logistics, materials management, physical distribution, purchasing and supplier management (4 hours).
2 - Designing the physical structure of supply networks: warehouse costs and capacities, supply network configuration techniques, risk pooling effect, warehouse centralization and decentralization, production relocation, logistics outsourcing, location choices, product structure and supply network configuration, postponement, design for supply chain management (14 hours).
3 - Designing the relational structure of supply networks: vertical integration and outsourcing, contractual agreements, transaction cost theory, choice of customer-supplier relationship (6 hours).
4 - Purchasing and supplier management in supply networks: purchasing and procurement, the purchasing function, the role of buyers, the model of Ellram and Olsen, partnership, sourcing policies (6 hours).
5 - Physical distribution management in supply networks: distribution strategies, direct shipment, warehousing and cross-docking, central vs. local facilities, push vs. pull systems, transportation modes, factors affecting transportation decisions, design options for a transportation network, trade-offs in transportation design, outsourcing of logistics activities, third party logistics (3PL), advantages and disadvantages of 3PL, implementation issues, INCOTERMS (10 hours).
6 - Materials management in supply networks: Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP), echelon inventory and lead time, reorder point and safety stock in a supply network, Vendor Management Inventory to co-ordinate materials management in global supply networks, CPFR, Continuous Replenishment, IT for SCM (10 hours).
Exercises (16 hours).

References

- Romano P., Danese P., Supply Chain Management, McGraw-Hill, Milano, 2010

Type of exam

Written and oral

Additional material or information on line