Orientation: Supply Chain Management Fundamentals

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Message from your Instructor

This message confirms that you have signed up for Supply Chain Management Fundamentals, a Fundamentals course that I will be teaching entirely online. I have prepared this document to help make your online educational experience as positive and enjoyable as possible. It contains contact information, a description of our course delivery system, course mechanics, and a course schedule.

How to get Started:

This course is conducted through an online classroom. You will need to go to this classroom to obtain your lessons, work through tutorials, take quizzes, complete assignments, participate in discussions with your fellow students, and ask questions of your instructor. As soon as the registration office verifies receipt of your payment, you will be able to participate. Here's how it works:

1. Wait until after 12:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) on the start date for this course.
2. After the course begins, go to https://www.ed2go.com/waterloo/. The Online Classroom is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, so please feel free to log in to your classroom at any time of day that is convenient for you.
3. Once on the website, click the Login link at the top right of the page.
4. Finally, log in with the username and password you provided us at the beginning of this orientation procedure. You should then be able to enter the online classroom and begin your studies.

Course Description

Supply chain management professionals play a key role in capturing customer demands, creating forecasts, developing schedules, ordering and managing inventory, controlling production orders, and maximizing customer satisfaction. This course will help you succeed in the supply chain management field.

You'll master the fundamentals of supply chain management, including customer demand forecasting, master production scheduling (MPS), material requirements planning (MRP), capacity planning, and production activity control (PAC). The course also includes essential information to help you prepare for internationally recognized supply chain and materials management certification examinations.

Course Requirements

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 12 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Course Mechanics

I will make two lessons available to you every week for six weeks. You do not have to be present when a lesson is released, but you'll need to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

Once all 12 lessons have been released, I will give you a two-week grace period to complete your studies and take the final exam. This means that you have a total of eight weeks to complete this course. If you're thinking of taking another course after this one, you can avoid overlap by starting that course exactly two months after this one begins.

Lessons are released by 12:00am (Pacific Time) on Wednesdays and Fridays. To access your lessons, simply visit the online classroom (as described in the "Getting Started" section), and then click the lesson title you wish to visit.

Once the class access ends, I won't be able to send you the lessons. If you would like to keep the lessons for future reference, I suggest using the print lesson feature in the classroom.

Each time you complete a lesson, you will also be asked to complete a brief multiple-choice quiz. I expect you to complete each quiz within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. I realize that you are busy, and don't want you to worry if you can't complete a few of the quizzes on time due to illness, vacation, or other commitments. Once I release a lesson and quiz, I will make sure it is available to you as long as the classroom is open.

The interactive multiple-choice quizzes are designed to test your comprehension of the course material. When you complete a quiz, you will receive an instant analysis of your work.

This analysis will include a brief explanation of any errors you may have made. If you are not satisfied with your performance, you are welcome to re-take the quiz until you feel that you have mastered the quiz objectives.

Note: If you ever want to see a progress report showing your performance on the quizzes over time, simply return to https://www.ed2go.com/waterloo/ and click Login or Account at the top right of the page. Once logged in, click the Report tab under the course title.

Some of your lessons will also be accompanied by an assignment. The assignments are designed to help you expand your understanding of the material taught in this course. Assignments are typically more detailed and may take a bit more time to work through than quizzes.

I expect you to complete each assignment within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. Unlike the quizzes, your assignments will not be evaluated. Assignments are designed primarily for your enrichment. You have the sole responsibility for evaluating your performance on each assignment. If you have questions about an assignment, please feel free to use the Discussion Areas to discuss your assignments with your fellow students and me.

When you work through an assignment, you will be gaining practical first-hand experience with the new skills taught in this course. Your performance on the final exam will depend in no small part on your mastery of the assignments.

The course will conclude with a final exam, which will test your comprehension of the material covered in this class. You must complete the final exam within two weeks from your receipt of lesson 12. Please review your selections before submitting. You may only submit your final exam answers once. Your performance on the final exam is the only factor we will consider when determining your eligibility for a certificate of completion. Although your quiz and assignments will not count toward your eligibility for a certificate, I do recommend that you try to complete each quiz and assignment to the best of your abilities. Doing so will leave you better prepared to pass the final exam.

When you finish your studies, please note that our classroom log-out process is fully automated. We will log you out of the classroom automatically whenever you close your browser or shut down your computer.

Questions

This course can be highly interactive, but the level of that interactivity is controlled by you. Since I can't see that puzzled look on your face, it's going to be up to you to ask questions when you get stuck.

I expect to get many interesting questions from you and your fellow students. I want to make sure that you and your classmates benefit from these often illuminating queries.

Therefore, I would like to request that you avoid e-mailing your questions to me. Instead, I have created 12 Discussion Areas in the online classroom (one Discussion Area for each lesson). To reach these Discussion Areas, all you will need to do is wait for the course to begin, go to the online classroom, select the lesson you're working on, and click the Discussion Area tile.

Your Discussion Area questions will serve as a challenge for your fellow students. Someone is bound to have an answer for you. Likewise, you should be able to find questions in the Discussion Area that you can answer. The Discussion Area will be open to you and your classmates 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Please try to visit the Discussion Area at least every other day while the course is in session, and don't be afraid to participate!

I firmly believe that the best way to learn a new skill is to teach it to others. We will all benefit by helping one another understand this complex material.

Because I don't want to see any unanswered questions, I (or one of my very capable teaching assistants) will be monitoring the Discussion Area at least every other day (excluding weekends and holidays). If you ask a relevant question, but fail to get a correct answer (or any answer whatsoever) from your classmates, then we will try our hardest to answer the question for you.

Please understand that the Discussion Area is reserved for conversations about the material in your lessons. While it is perfectly acceptable for you to employ a bit of friendly banter as you converse with your fellow students and instructors, I must ask you to always remember to stay on topic.

It is not appropriate to use the Discussion Area to sell goods or services, complain about something, or talk about subjects that are not specific to the lesson at hand, for example. Such off-topic conversations waste people's time and detract from the learning experience for all involved. I reserve the right to immediately delete any message without comment if I feel that it does not pertain directly to the material I am trying to teach.

I will also delete any messages containing language that I feel is derogatory, controversial, insulting, or otherwise inappropriate for my classroom.

Reminder

A legitimate organization would never send you an unsolicited e-mail that contains an attachment or asks for personal information. If you ever receive an unsolicited e-mail that contains an attachment or asks for personal information, delete the e-mail immediately.

When to Write my Course Administrator

As I mentioned earlier, the course Discussion Area is reserved solely for discussion of the material in your lessons.

Please do not use the course Discussion Areas for compliments, complaints, technical support, or other personal matters. Instead, please send such messages directly to my course administrator.

To contact the course administrator, scroll to the very bottom of any page within the classroom and look for the Support link.

Please understand that it may take my course administrator two or sometimes three business days to respond to e-mail, so provide plenty of time for a response.

If you need an extension, forgot your password, want a progress report, want to register for another course, or need help when you're not in my classroom, you can contact Student Support using the Help link under Resources in the footer of any page at https://www.ed2go.com/waterloo/.

Syllabus

Note: This course will run for six weeks. Two lessons will be released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when each lesson is released. Instead, you can take up to two weeks to complete each lesson after it is released.

Important: In order to keep this material as up-to-date and informative as possible, I reserve the right to make changes to the course content, description, and syllabus at any time and without warning.

A new session of each course we offer starts on the second or third Wednesday of every month. You may enroll in more than one course at a time. If you are enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Certification and Systems

Wednesday

This lesson will discuss professional certification, and you'll get acquainted with APICS, the professional society for supply change management (SCM) practitioners. You'll find out about the concept of an operating system and the use of a supply chain. You'll also learn about Material Resources Planning (MRPII) and the role that it plays in an organization.

Sales and Operations Planning

Friday

MRPII creates a logical structure for information, activities, and material to flow. While beneficial, MRPII represents only half of what an organization needs to succeed. In this lesson, you'll see the other half of the picture—Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP). It's a dynamic process that can make your company a world-class organization. You'll learn how to successfully use S&OP, identify key focus areas, and appreciate the benefits of following the S&OP cycle.

Week 2

An Overview of Forecasting

Wednesday

In this lesson, you'll examine forecasting—defined as a prediction based on scientific observation. You'll explore the history and nature of forecasting and learn about customer demand. You'll discover how to set forecasting objectives and create a process to develop and update weekly or monthly forecasts.

Forecasting Techniques

Friday

In this lesson, you'll examine the components of demand: averages, linear trend, seasonality, and cyclical, irregular, and random factors. The lesson will cover many qualitative forecasting techniques, including the Delphi method, panel consensus, and historical analogy. You'll learn about quantitative forecasting by working on problems involving time series (simple and weighted moving average and exponential smoothing) and associative methods (linear regression and multiple regression analysis). You'll start to get a sense of which forecasting methods to use for which situations.

Week 3

Advanced Forecasting Topics

Wednesday

This lesson will conclude the discussion of forecasting. You'll find out about macroforecasting and two forecasting techniques that really fit in the quantitative or qualitative categories: focus forecasting and pyramid forecasting. You'll discover how to develop forecasts for new products, and learn how to use techniques to effectively control your forecasts before they get too far off track.

Strategy and the Production Plan

Friday

In this lesson, you'll learn how to develop and use a Gantt chart, examine basic scheduling principles, and discover how to overcome production schedule challenges. You'll also learn how to use priority rules to sequence work orders, use shop loading, and manage work orders. Finally, the lesson will teach you all about lead-time. You'll learn to identify its components and about how you can successfully control it.

Week 4

Master Production Scheduling

Wednesday

The topic of this lesson is the master production schedule (MPS). An MPS breaks down the production plan in greater detail. To manage your MPS effectively, you'll need a master scheduler. The lesson will teach you about how the master scheduler converts the production schedule to an MPS, applies a final assembly schedule, and uses available-to-promise (ATP) to satisfy customer orders. You'll also learn how critical it is to measure and control your MPS and methods to keep it moving in the right direction.

Material Requirements Planning

Friday

The process called material requirements planning (MRP) is one of the great inventions of the 20th century. In this lesson, you'll discover how MRP can help your company. You'll learn about the basics—dependent demand, bills of materials, and inventory records—and study the various reports and schedules. You'll also find out how to lot-size MRP orders and what it takes to implement MRP.

Week 5

Capacity Planning

Wednesday

To succeed with capacity planning, you must manage the present and the future. You need to balance flexibility (being able to meet new and diverse needs in different ways) with capability (doing what you must do now). In this lesson, you'll learn about the goals and requirements to effectively manage capacity. You'll also discover how to use strategic capacity management, rough-cut capacity planning (RCCP), and capacity requirements planning (CRP) to define, plan, measure, and control output.

Production Activity Control, Part 1

Friday

The last four lessons will discuss production activity control (PAC). PAC is vital because it activates all of your plans, including the MPS, MRP, and your capacity plan. You'll look at the PAC cycle and its requirements and benefits, then learn how to apply backward and forward scheduling, manage bottlenecks, and optimize set up management. The lesson will also cover linear programming as a way to schedule products when you face supply and demand constraints.

Week 6

Production Activity Control, Part 2

Wednesday

In this lesson, you'll examine another method with an acronym: production scheduling and control (PSC). PSC is the part of PAC that carries out your planning, going all the way back to the business plan. By the time you finish this lesson, you'll know how to develop and use a Gantt chart, understand basic scheduling principles, and know how to overcome production schedule challenges. You'll also learn how to use priority rules to sequence work orders, use shop loading, and manage work orders.

Production Activity Control, Part 3

Friday

In this final lesson, you'll learn all about lead-time. The lesson will identify its components and discuss how you can successfully control it. You'll finish the course by studying operation overlapping as a way to improve production and keep materials flowing smoothly.