Code: UMSCCE-10-M

Title: Supply Chain Strategy and Management

Version: 1

Level: M

UWE credit rating: 10

ECTS credit rating:

Module type: Standard

Owning Faculty: BBS

Field: Strategy and International Business

Valid from: 1 September 1999

Discontinued from:

Contributes towards: MSc Technology Management, IGDS (see guidance notes)

Pre-requisites: None

Co-requisites: None

Excluded combinations: None

Learning outcomes:

It is increasingly evident that purchasing and supply chain management are critical functions of business management. Indeed, business success is frequently determined by the overall competitiveness of a firm’s supply chain rather than by the competitiveness of a single company ie achieving and sustaining a market advantage involves supply chain competing with supply chain rather than company competing with company. The professional purchaser is an indispensable link between a ‘user’, the source of demand, and a ‘seller’, the source of supply, and is, therefore, directly involved in supply chain strategy and management. It is evidently apparent that, for many firms, the purchasing function is no longer limited to the administrative process of selecting suppliers and managing contracts. increasingly, professional purchasers are concerned with selecting strategic partners and managing long-term mutually dependent relationships.

This module will explore established ‘ good practice’ in supply chain strategy and management, as well as conceptualising an ‘ultimate goal’ or strategic role for the purchasing function. In other words, the overall aim of this module is to assess and explore the significance of ‘input market management’ in relation to ‘output market competitiveness’.

This module will develop the student’s appreciation and expectation, of the opportunities and limitations of a firm’s Supply Chain Strategy and Management.

Students who complete this module will:

• Have a comprehensive knowledge and critical understanding of the procedures and processes of locating, evaluating and selecting external sources of supply; particularly appreciating the use of the external supplier as a source of innovation technology and competence; the importance of an effected (added value) relationship between buyer and user; the responsibility and contribution of the purchasing function to the firms efforts to create, co-ordinate and control upstream value; the role of the purchasing and supply function as a centre for skills, competencies and information; the tasks undertaken and the responsibilities of the professional buyer.

• Have a critical approach to the literature on supply chain strategy and management.

• Be able to use conceptual frameworks to analyse and critically evaluate the risks and opportunities of various buyer/supplier relationship styles, including predatory, adversarial, collaborative and partnership.

• Be able to synthesise conceptual frameworks from the literature with their own professional experiences and develop new approaches for understanding purchasing and supply issues, which will enable them to generate creative solutions to supply chain management problems, - such as the use of supply innovation as a means of achieving a sustainable “supply derived” competitive advantage.

Syllabus outline:

• Internal Market - Relationships and responsibilities:

Value analysis and cost improvement engineering, implications for purchasing.

Simultaneous and concurrent engineering:

Lean Supply (JIT), MRP, MRPII - implications for purchasing.

Countertrade: offset and reciprocal - implications for purchasing.

Variety reduction, standardisation and rationalisation; implications for purchasing.

Purchasing performance, motivation, incentives, expectations, benchmarking.

Effective organisation structures (OD & HR issues).

Inventory management.

• Input Market - Managing external relationships:

Input market management - upstream value improvement.

Negotiation strategies, implications of relationship management.

Single and multiple sourcing strategies.

Business Ethics and integrity - the professional purchaser/supply manager.

Vendor analysis and measuring (benchmarking) supplier performance.

Relationship strategies between buyer, seller and the internal customer - predatory, adversarial, co-operative, partnership and mutually dependent.

Relationship management.

Managing international/global sources of supply.

Supply related vulnerability and risk management.

Electronic data transfer/exchange (EDI), the virtual corporation - implications for purchasing.

• Output Market - Contributing to competitiveness (Strategic Purchasing);

The make or buy decision, implications for purchasing (spilt milk concept).

Limitations of competitive bidding/tendering - public accountability, delegating risk.

True procurement cost, total cost of ownership/acquisition.

Lead-time and manoeuvre strategy (outbound logistics) Supply innovation and reverse marketing.

Input market myopia - strategic supply management/issues

Management of quality assurance (procedures and practice).

Teaching and learning methods:

• The module’s learning outcomes will be accomplished by a combination of lectures, case analysis, tutorial group discussion, role/game play, student presentations and other supporting activities. It is intended that the teaching plan will incorporate a guest speaker programme. The guest speaker programme will be used to augment the ‘theoretical’ content of the module, and provide an important link with practical reality and contemporary industrial society.

• The module will incorporate a ‘required text’ book (eg Dobler and Burt). A pre-module preparatory and post-module consolidation reading schedule, listing essential, recommended and optional chapters will be issued to students before, or on, commencement of the ‘taught’ programme.

• Central to teaching and learning at M level is the high level of critical discourse in contact sessions and assessed work. A participative ethos allows the contribution of both staff and students to be equally valued in the exploration, evaluation and creation of theory and its application to problem solving in both case and real organisational contexts. This approach requires the ability to define, obtain, rigorously analyse and evaluate information quickly and communicate relevant conclusions and recommendations to team colleagues and professional and academic audiences in a range of formats.

Indicative sources:

Dobler and Burt (1996) Sixth Edition, Purchasing and Supply Management, McGraw Hill

Bailey, Farmer, Jessop and Jones (1998) Eighth Edition, Purchasing Principles & Management, Financial Times, Pitman Publishing

Saunders, Malcolm (1994) Strategic Purchasing & Supply Chain Management, Pitman Publishing

Heinritz, Farrel and Smith (199?) Purchasing: Principles and Applications, Prentice-Hall International

Ford, David (1998) Managing Business Relationships, John Wiley & Sons: England

Lamming, Richard (1993) Beyond Partnership: Strategies for Innovation and Lean Supply, Prentice Hall

Womack and Jons (1996) Lean Thinking, Simon & Schuster

Hamel, G and Prahalad, CK (1994) Competing for the Future, Harvard Business School Press

Indicative Reading (Journal articles)

Caddick J R and Dale, B G (1987) The Determination of Purchasing Objectives and Strategies: Some Key Influences, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Materials Management 17 (3), p5-16

Cammish R and Keough M (1991) A Strategic Role for Purchasing, The Mckinsey Quarterly. e, p22-39

Carter J and Gagne J (1988) The Dos and Don’ts of International Countertrade, Sloan Management Review, Spring p31-37

Dyer J and Ouchi W (1993) Japanese Style Partnerships: Giving Companies a Competitive Edge, Sloan Management Review, Fall p51-63

Ellram L (1990) The Supplier Selection Decision in Strategic Partnerships, Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management 26 (4) p8-14

Hahn, C Kim K, Kim J (1986) Costs of Competition: Implications for Purchasing Strategy, Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management 22 (3) p2-7

Hamel G, Doz Y and Prahalad CK (1989) Collaborate with your Competitors - and Win, Harvard Business Review p133-139

Hamel G and Prahalad CK (1990) Strategic Intent, The McKinsey Quarterly Spring p36-61

Landeros R and Monczka R M (1989) Co-operative Buyer/Seller Relationships and a Firm’s Competitive Posture, Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management. Fall p9-18

Lengnick-Hall, Cynthia (1992) A Innovation and Competitive Advantage: What we know and What we need to Learn, Journal of Management 18 (2) p399-429

Morris M and Clantone R (1991) Redefining the Purchasing Function: An Entrepreneurial Perspective, International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management 27 (4) p2-9

Presutti W Jr (1991) Technology Management: An Important Element in the Supplier Capability Survey, International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management 27 (1) p11-15

Puto C, Patton W and King R (1985) Risk Handling Strategies in Industrial Vendor Selection Decisions. Journal of Marketing 49 (1) p89-98

Reed R and Defillippi R (1990) Causal Ambiguity, Barriers to Imitation and Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Academy of Management Review 15 (1) p88-102

Spekman, R E (1988a) Perceptions of Strategic Vulnerability Among Industrial Buyers and its Effects on Information Search and Supplier Selection, Journal of Business Research 17 (4) p313-326

Stafford E (1994) Using Co-operative Strategies to Make Alliances Work, Long Range Planning 27 (3) p 64-74

Venkatesan R (1992) To make or not to Make, Harvard Business Review. Nov/Dec, p 98-107

Walker G (1988) Strategic Sourcing, Vertical Integration and Transaction Costs, Interfaces 18 (3) p62-73

White P and Hanmer-Lloyd S (1999) Managing the Input Market: The Strategic Challenge. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management 5 (1) p23-31

White P and Hanmer-Lloyd S (1996) Competence in Strategic Purchasing: The Competitive Strategy of Managing (Backward) Vertical Business Relationships

Working Paper - 12th International IMP Conference, University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany Sep 5th-7th

Williams, AJ and Smith WC (1990) Involving Purchasing in Product Development, industrial Marketing Management 19 p315-319

Assessment

Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only)

n/a

ATTEMPT 1

First Assessment Opportunity

Component A

Description of each element

1 Supervised mini project

Element weighting

1

Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes is not required)

Component A

Description of each element

1 Supervised mini project

Element weighting

1

SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT Attendance at taught classes is required.

Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………Date ……………………………

(Associate Dean/Programme Director)