Introduction
Please note that this is a preliminary course description. The final version will be published in June 2027.
Efficient management of modern supply chains requires a deep understanding of their challenges and key decision areas, such as network design, sourcing, production, transportation, and inventory management. This course begins by exploring the fundamental concepts and critical decisions in Supply Chain Management, providing students with the necessary context before diving into analytics.
Students will then learn how to develop optimization models to support data-driven decision making for transportation and production planning, as well as integrated models for coordinated decision making across multiple stages in a supply chain. The course emphasizes the use of quantitative tools that are now essential for supply chain managers, including linear, mixed-integer, and non-linear programming models, solved using standard solvers. In addition, heuristic methods will be introduced for addressing complex or large-scale problems where traditional methods may be impractical.