Supply Chain Management

Basics of Supply Chain Management

A slow start is not our style. We will dive right in with an introduction to all the subjects you will encounter this year. It is the starting point for every subject in the curriculum. For students from another sector this is a first introduction, for experienced profiles a refresher of the basics. This "teaser" is the first brick on which you can build the rest of the curriculum.

Managerial Decision-Making

Leadership is no guessing game. Although healthy intuition will get you moving in the right direction, there are many methods to help you evaluate which decision is right for your team, for your company, for your market. Together, we will explore real-life situations and how best to handle them as a manager, so that you can start working as a supply chain manager with a solid foundation.

Production and Operations Management

While supply chain management seeks harmony between suppliers and customers, operations management focuses on harmony between the functional departments within your company. Both deal with the acquisition, development and use of resources that companies need to deliver their goods and services – but in a different playing field. Smooth internal integration ensures that your external business operations runs effortlessly as well.

Distribution Structures and Outbound Logistics

There are a lot of moving parts in a transportation supply chain. To manage those smartly, we'll introduce you to the world of transportation with 101 practical questions: How do you get packages to your customers? How do warehouses and sorting centers work? How do you fill trucks and vans to make the smartest deliveries? How do retailers go about stocking stores? In short, how can you organize your transportation movements for the most efficient and economical results?

Supply Chain Finance

A managerial position also involves conversations with the finance department, so awareness of what goes on there is key. After a general foundation, we will zoom in on the financial issues specific to logistics. Not only will you learn to fluently speak the language of your finance colleagues for efficient cooperation, but you will also have the necessary knowledge to enter a finance function yourself. Win-win!

Modeling Global Supply Chains

Supply chains don't grow on trees, someone is in charge of designing each sequence. That could be you. In this course, you'll find a comprehensive set of tools to get started with drafting and to better understand, evaluate and manage existing networks. No matter how limited or extensive the network, with these tools and techniques in hand you will know how to tackle any supply-chain.

Supply Chain Implementation Aspects

Time for the real thing. We will step into the laboratory of supply chain professionals' daily activities to listen to their stories. How do supply chain companies operate? What barriers do they encounter? And how can we as future leaders meet them? We will ask these questions on Belgian company visits, but also during the study trip abroad, to explore the widest possible variety of real cases.

Integrated Business Processes with SAP ERP - MOOC

The success of a logistics chain is very dependent on its management system, of which SAP ERP is the most widely used business software worldwide. But its successor (S/4HANA, based on the SAP HANA database) is already on its way. This course will prepare you for this complex but important field, to make you immediately employable as a supply-chain specialist.

Global Supply Chain Experience

"The Fresh Connection" Game is more than a funky title. It is a virtual learning environment where you are challenged to save the company TFC from destruction. The advanced simulation software calculates the consequences of every strategic and tactical decision your team makes. In different rounds, you will compete against your fellow students. Which team will make its value chain perform best?

Strategic Procurement

This course revolves entirely around procurement and the strategic decisions involved. From long-term to short-term supplier relationships, from markets with a plethora of possible partnerships to markets with no more than one designated partner, from exploratory work to negotiation techniques – we will explore it all to give you the best foundation for establishing successful procurement systems.

Master Project

During this in-company project, you will be deployed intensively for eight weeks as a junior consultant to solve an actual business case. With this hands-on, consultative role, you will effortlessly make the bridge to practice. Whether you opt for a project at a start-up, SME or multinational, the company will be able to convert your ideas into workable solutions right away – the crowning achievement of your hard work over the past year.

Note: This curriculum is subject to change.

This in-company assignment is the icing on the cake of this master, seeing as the hands-on advising role builds a bridge to the practice. Lauren Wilson, Thi Le en Matthieu Kulezak optimalized several processes for Innovet.

A multicultural student body is a rewarding start to learning to collaborate professionally with different perspectives. But to become a true expert, it's important to go beyond the AMS campus. Join us on a trip to learn about the ins and outs of the logistics industry abroad, to broaden your cultural horizons and network. And if our alumni are to be believed, it is an experience that will stay with you forever.

Last year, our students went to Copenhagen, Denmark. They followed lectures at the Danish Technical University, visited different companies and industry organizations, and had a tour of the beautiful city. The visit concluded with a day-long hackathon where the students put their learnings to the test, hacking the future of city logistics.

In addition to the standard curriculum, you also have the opportunity to enrich your studies with electives, in the form of an intensive week of classes, entirely devoted to a topic that is relevant and interesting to you. We always provide an extensive choice between topics from the current geopolitical climate, relevant world news and future-proof insights.

To give you an idea, this list shows some of the electives from previous years.

• Digital Transformation
• Designing Business Models for Future Growth
• Geopolitical Challenges
• Emerging Asian Markets
• International Healthcare Management
• Organizing for the Digital Future

Your personal development is just as important as the technical knowledge you will gain this year. Therefore, this module challenges you to get to know yourself better: What is your personality like? How do you work with others? What career goals do you want to pursue? This valuable awareness and the soft skills that go with it will strengthen you as a person to take the next professional step and put you in a good light with recruiters.

After completing this program:

• ...you will be aware of the key management areas, theories and concepts and what strategic implementation options are available – with a connoisseur's eye for global supply-chains.
• ...you will have a thorough understanding of each link within a supply chain and how they interact.
• ...you know which frameworks to employ to optimize complex supply chain and logistics processes and how to put those into practice.
• ...analyzing supply chain issues and making improvements with concrete, feasible proposals is your second nature.
• ...you are at home in the various components of logistics processes and companies, thanks to visits to dozens of logistics players.
• ...you can professionally report and present analyses, findings and proposals.
• ...you will know how to solve not only logistics, but also management issues, with a strong (multicultural) communication, business-savvy mindset, critical eye and an appetite for teamwork.