LOGISTICS and SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
70-471  Spring 2001 (Tu-Th, 1.30-2.50pm, Room: PH226A)
Prof. Itir Z. Karaesmen


Syllabus: Instructor Information, Teaching Assistant Information, Course Description, Prerequisites, Textbook,
Course Methods and Materials, Requirements and Grading, Course Outline, Assignments

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  • Last Update:  1/25/01

  • Instructor Information

    Instructor: Itir Z. Karaesmen
    Office: 360 Posner Hall
    Office Hours: Tu 3-5pm, or by appointment
    Phone: (412) 268-8833
    E-Mail: itir@andrew.cmu.edu
    Web Page:  http:/www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/itir

    Teaching Assistant Information

     Teaching Assistants:
               Mr. Nihat Altintas (nihat@andrew.cmu.edu)
               Mr. Koji Inoue (kinoue@andrew.cmu.edu)
     Office Hours: By appointment

    Course Description

    This is a course on logistics and supply chain management, which is an integrated  approach to the management of all activities involved in physically moving raw material, in-process inventory and finished goods,  from point(s) of origin (supply) to point(s) of consumption. The activities to be managed may include - but are not limited to – transportation and distribution, inventory maintenance, purchasing, and material handling. This course will provide a survey on strategic planning, demand management and forecasting, facilities location selection, transportation decisions, distribution systems, inventory control  and role of information in business logistics. It will introduce the students to quantitative models and techniques that aid decision-making in supply chain management and logistics problems.

    The course has the following objectives: (1) to understand the role of logistics and supply chain management in a business, (2) to understand the individual components of logistics and their interrelationship within individual companies, (3) to develop your skills in solving specific logistics and supply chain problems, and (5) to make you familiar with some of the emerging directions in business logistics and supply chain management.


    Prerequisites

    The Production and Operations Management (70-371) is a prerequisite for this course. I also suggest - but not require - Probability and Statistics for Business (70-207) and Operations Research I (21-292) (or Models & Methods of Optimization 21-257) for you to be more comfortable with the quantitative models and techniques to be covered in class.


    Textbook

    There is a required textbook for the course:
     "Business Logistics Management" by R.H. Ballou, Prentice Hall, 4th edition, 1999.
    There are a number of books related to Logistics and Supply Chain Management on reserve for this course in the Library.

    Course Methods and Materials

    The course involves a mixture of lectures and case discussions. The workload consists of homework assignments, a final group project, a midterm exam and a final exam. 

    Requirements and Grading

    Your grade in the course will be based on both your individual and group efforts and performance. The weight on various activities will be as follows:

    Homework + Case + Game Assignments

    Homework assignments should be done individually. Collaboration between students for the homework assignments is not permitted. You may discuss homework problems with the instructor and the teaching assistant.  Case studies should be done by groups of 3-4 students. Case write-ups should begin with a brief summary of the case background, and should clearly state the problem to be addressed, followed with your analysis and conclusions/recommendations.
    The beer game will be played in groups of 4-5 people. There will be one group assignment on the beer game.

    Group Project

    The intention of the course project is to allow you to apply or to expand on the ideas you learn in class to an area of special interest to you. You can choose a logistics problem based on your experience, or work on a problem that you think will become important in the future, or do a research on best practices,  “emerging” problems, or strategies related to logistics and supply chain management. You can focus on only one company, or an industry, or on implementation of a strategy in different companies or (industries). If your project involves “solving” a problem, actual or reported data is preferred (especially if you choose to do case study on a company). However, if such data is not available, reasonable scenario analysis is acceptable. If your research involves research but no problem solving, then try to get as much up-to-date information as possible by searching books, articles,  and web-sites. You are to do this project in groups of no more than 4 students.

    Your work on the final project will be submitted in three parts: a project proposal, a final presentation and a final report. I strongly encourage each group to come and have an informal meetings with me during the semester. This will give me the opportunity to guide your work and give you timely feedback for a high quality output. However, these meetings are optional. The tentative date for the project presentations are April 24 (Tuesday) and April 26 (Thursday). The project report is due May 1, 2001 (Tuesday).


    Midterm Examination

    The midterm exam is on March 1, 2001 (Tuesday), during the class time. It will be in class, closed-book, closed-notes.  One page of cheat sheet allowed.

    Final Exam

    The date, time and location of the final exam will be announced later. It will be in class, closed-book, closed-notes.  One page of cheat sheet allowed.

    Course Outline

    Class 1 (1/16- Tu):  Introduction and course administration. What is business logistics management?
    Download: Lecture 1

    Class 2 (1/18-Th):  Role of business logistics for companies and in the economy.
    Download: Lecture 2

    Class 3 (1/23-Tu):  Logistics strategy  and customer service issues.
    Download: Lecture 3

    Class 4 (1/25-Th):   POM review.
    Download: Lecture 4

    Class 5 (1/30-Tu):  Customer service.
    Download: Lecture 5

    Class 6 (2/1-Th):  Transport fundamentals. Transport services.
    Download: Lecture 6

    Class 7 (2/6-Tu):  Network models, distribution and assignment problems.
    Download: Lecture 7

    Class 8 (2/8-Th):  Introduction to routing.
    Download: Lecture 8

    Class 9 (2/13-Tu):  Heuristics for vehicle routing.
    Download: Lecture 9

    Class 10 (2/15-Th):  Inventory models.
    Download: Lecture 10

    Class 11 (2/20-Tu): Inventory models.
    Download: Lecture 11

    Class 12 (2/22-Th):  Total cost of logistics, inventory and transport costs combined.
    Download: Lecture 12

    Class 13 (2/27-Tu):  Mid-term review.
    Download: Lecture 13

    Class 14 (3/1-Th):  MIDTERM EXAMINATION. (closed book, closed notes, one page of cheat sheet allowed)
    Download: Lecture 14 (Midterm)

    Class 15 (3/6-Tu):  Midterm solution. Forecasting.
    Download: Lecture 15
    Download: Midterm solution

    No Class on 3/8 (Th): MID-SEMESTER BREAK

    Class 16 (3/13-Tu): Forecasting.
    Download: Lecture 16

    Class 17 (3/15-Th):  Forecasting.
    Download: Lecture 17

    Class 18 (3/20-Tu):  Facility location.
    Download: Lecture 18

    Class 19 (3/22-Th): Facility location.
    Download: Lecture 19

    No Class on 3/27 (Tu) and 3/29 (Th): SPRING BREAK

    Class 20 (4/3-Tu):  Third Party Providers, logistics alliances.
    Download: Lecture 20

    Class 21 (4/5-Th):  Logistics and supply chain strategy.
    Download: Lecture 21

    Class 22 (4/10-Tu):  Beer Game.
    Download:  Lecture 22

    Class 23 (4/12-Th):  Beer Game.
    Download: Lecture 23

    Class 24 (4/17-Tu):  Role of information.
    Download: Lecture 24

    Class 25 (4/19-Th):  New directions in supply chains.
    Download: Lecture 25

    Class 26 (4/24-Tu): Project presentations.
    Download: no lecture notes

    Class 27 (4/26-Th):  Project presentations.
    Download: no lecture notes

    Class 28 (5/1-Tu):  Course wrap-up.
    Download: Lecture 28

    Class 29 (4/24-Tu): Last lecture, course wrap-up. review for the final exam.
    Download: Lecture 29


    Assignments

    HW#1 (due February 1, 2001):This is NOT a group assignment. Please do not discuss the material with your friends.
    Answer the following questions: Questions 1, 4.b,  7.a, 12 (Chapter 1, pages 25-26 of the textbook), questions 6 and 7 (Chapter 2, page 48 of the textbook).

    HW#2 (due February 8, 2001): This is NOT a group assignment. Please do not discuss the material with your friends.
    1. Answer the following questions: 13 (Chp.2), 11 (Chp.3), 13 (Chp.3), 5 (Chp.4), 7 (Chp.4).
    2. Read the article on Bennetton. Analyze Benetton's logistics and supply chain system, using  the "guidelines for logistics stragety" we discussed in Lecture 3. How does Benetton use these factors  to improve its supply chain performance?
    3. Read the articles #6 and #7 on supply chain management. What are the seven pricinples of supply chain management?
    How does HP use these principles to improve its supply chain performance?


    Additional Reading

    1. "Emerging Technologies in Logistics: Selected Results from the 1999 Survey of Career Patterns in Logistics"
    2. "E-Commerce: Its Impact on Transportation, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management "
    3. "Internet Fulfillment: The Next Supply Chain Frontier"
    4. "The Internet-Enabled Supply Chain: From the First Click to the Last Mile"
    5. "Global Logistics Benetton Style" (click here for .pdf version)
    6. "Effective Supply Chain Management" (click here for .pdf version)
    7. "The Seven Principles of Supply Chain Management"

    Links to Logistics Related Web Sites

                            Organizations
      ASTL - The American Society of Transportation and Logistics
      CALM - Canadian Association of Logistics Management
      CLM- Council of Logistics Management
      Council on Competitiveness
      IANA - Intermodal Association of North America
      IWLA - International Warehouse Logistics Association
      The Material Handling Institute
      The International Society of Logistics
      U.S. Department of Transportation
      WERC - Warehousing Education and Research Council

                           Logistics Related Businesses  and Practices
      FinListics® Solutions, Inc.
      The Progress Group

                           Other Web Sites
      ASCET - Achieving Supply Chain Excellence Through Technology
      Educational Resource links at ASCET
      Benchnet: The Benchmarking Exchange
      ITS Online
      International Society for Performance Improvement
      Logistics World
      The Logistics Network
      The Outsourcing Institute
      Virtual Logistics Directory
      Yahoo News - Transportation Industry