Master of Science in Business Administration

Updated A.Y. 2019-2020

Updated A.Y. 2018-2019

Updated A.Y. 2017-2018

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The course aims to provide a conceptual understanding of what supply and purchasing are as well as the key issues that need to be considered when designing, planning, or operating a supply chain, with a specific focus on Procurement/Purchasing.

More specifically, the objectives of the course are:
- to develop a basic understanding of supply chain management and its role in the company
- to deepen the key drivers of Purchasing and their inter-relationships with strategy and other functions of the company (e.g., marketing, manufacturing and account-ing);
- to develop analytical and problem solving skills necessary to develop solutions for a variety of Purchasing and design problems;
- to understand what information should be exchanged in a supply chain/purchasing activity and how Information technologies can support it;
- to identify improvement opportunities that exist within Purchasing in different in-dustries and to quantify the improvements that various supply chain strategies of-fer.

STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE AND REFERENCE TEXTBOOK

The course is based on two parts:

PART I: The core concepts of Procurement and Supply Chain Managements:
- The role of purchasing in the value chain
- Industrial buying behaviour: Decision-making in purchasing
- The purchasing management process
- Buying business services
- Contract management for complex projects
This part  will leverage on the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model developed by APICS/SCC as a comprehensive open-source model well adopted by practitioners
http://www.apics.org/apics-for-business/frameworks/scor

PART II: Purchasing Strategy and planning
- Purchasing and business strategy
- Outsourcing and risk management
- Category sourcing: developing effective sourcing strategies
- Purchasing, innovation and quality management
- Purchasing, logistics and supply chain management
- Purchasing organization
- Performance measurement and governance in purchasing

The reference textbook is:
Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, Cengage Learning, 7th Edition (2014)
Analysis, Strategy, Planning and Practice
Arjan J. van Weele, Eindhoven University of Technology
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13
Published by Cengage Learning, ©2018

The slides will be provided both on the course website and the Moodle platform. In the Moodle platform there will be also videos supporting the e-learning classes.

OTHER LEARNING SOURCES
• SCOR – Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (by APICS/SCC)
• Kraljic P. – Purchasing must become supply management, HBR Sept.-Oct. 1983
• Lee H.L – The Triple-A supply chain, HBR October 2004
• Frank A.G. den Butter and Kees A. Linse (2008) Rethinking Procurement in the Era of Globalization, MIT Sloan Management Review

TEACHING METHODS
Classes with case studies, testimonials and simulations.
E-learning classes and forums based on the MScBA Moodle platform and on webinars (The teacher will provide during the first lesson a description about the utilization of Moodle).

EXAM

The exam is based on a  written test. The written test will last 1 hour and 45 minutes, and it is made of 5 open questions: two + two questions on each part (as from the textbook) plus one question on the additional materials.

Please note that however attendance is not compulsory but the participation to the practice-oriented part can strongly strengthen your learning from the course.