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2017/2018  KAN-CCMVV2060U  Advanced Decision Support and Analysis in the Supply Chain

English Title
Advanced Decision Support and Analysis in the Supply Chain

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Second Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Ozay Ozaydin - Department of Operations Management (OM)
Please find contact information for Student Hub, student Guidiance Services etc. on My.cbs.dk
Main academic disciplines
  • Information technology
  • Management
  • Supply chain management and logistics
Last updated on 26-09-2017

Relevant links
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors: At the end of the course the students should be able to:
  • Identify supply chain problems requiring decision support and analysis in the enterprise
  • Identify and reflect on the challenges of organizational decision-making in supply chains
  • Explain and apply appropriate mechanisms and methods for analysing supply chain problems and assess their use in decision making.
  • Use cutting-edge IT tools to analyze supply chain problems and evaluate the usefulness of this information in decision-making processes
  • Reflect on how to make supply chain decisions involving multiple stakeholders, uncertainty and ambiguity
Examination
Advanced Decision Support and Analysis in the Supply Chain:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam on CBS' computers
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Aids Limited aids, see the list below:
The student is allowed to bring
  • Any calculator
  • Language dictionaries in paper format
The student will have access to
  • Advanced IT application package
At all written sit-in exams the student has access to the basic IT application package (Microsoft Office (minus Excel), digital pen and paper, 7-zip file manager, Adobe Acrobat, Texlive, VLC player, Windows Media Player). PLEASE NOTE: Students are not allowed to communicate with others during the exam : Read more about exam aids and IT application packages here
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
Description of the exam procedure

The exam paper includes 4-5 questions, each having several subquestions. All questions are mandatory. The weight for each question is shown in brackets in the exam paper.
Course content and structure

The aim of this course is to develop the students’ understanding of the organizational challenges when making and implementing organizational decisions in a supply chain context, as well as improve their skills in using IT tools to support their decision-making processes in terms of collecting and analyzing data.

 

To make good decisions fast is becoming ever more important in a world where information is ubiquitous and technologies change at an incredible pace. This class will provide the students with information technology (IT) tools and the conceptual framework to approach these situations with clarity and confidence and improve their decision making skills. Most firms have reached a point where the utilization of IT to support strategic/tactical/ operational decision-making surfaces as more vital than ever. Thus, the course will provide the students with the opportunity to have hands-on experience with cutting-edge software tools and learn how to analyse data and solve supply chain problems. Yet, leveraging benefits from IT systems and tools depends less on possessing and using the technology and more on the ability to best utilize the information in decision-making processes. Therefore, it is important the students understand how decisions happen in organizations and are able to reflect on theories of decision-making and their limitations in practice.

 

Which supplier should a company select for a specific order?  Should a company outsource its operations or not? Should a company launch an aggressive marketing campaign that will require substantial resources with no guarantee of success? Which business model is most suited to support the long-term survival of our supply chain? What information technology will best serve the needs of our customer service department? Managers face many important and far-reaching decision situations in their professional life.  Situations where substantial resources need to be committed, where many different stakeholder groups are involved in or affected by the decisions that they make, and where a variety of potential consequences are at stake. Although pure rational models give a simple prescriptive solution to reaching optimal solutions, most decisions to be made in real life, involve humans and their subjective considerations. The aim of this course is to especially bring these considerations out. 
Teaching methods
Research and theory based lectures are mixed with exercises and cases. We will also focus the content of exercises and cases on situations where advances in information technology have led to fundamental changes and new opportunities in supply chain management. In addition, we will hear from guest speakers who are actively involved in applying decision-analytic ideas and tools in the business environment. Several learning methods are blended (general talks, formal lectures, case studies, teamwork onto project development, computer lab sessions, and technical visits) in a set of topics that will promote student engagement.
Feedback during the teaching period
Office hours for feedback, regular short assignments during the lectures and peer feedback techniques will be used to provide feedback to students.
Student workload
Lectures in class 33 hours
Preparation 70 hours
Exam preparation 100 hours
Exam 4 hours
Further Information

This course is a part of the minor in: Supply Chain Intelligence - An applied perspective

 
Expected literature

Main mandatory course book:

  • Goodwin P, Wright G.  Decision Analysis for Management Judgment, 5th Edition

Additional articles:

  • Davenport, T.H. 2010, Business Intelligence and Organizational Decisions, International Journal of Business Intelligence Research, 1: 4, pp.1-10.
  • ​Sahay, B.S., J. Ranjan, 2008. Real time business intelligence in supply chain analytics, Information Management & Computer Security, (16:1), 28–48.
  • Trkman, P., McCormack, K., Valadares de Oliveira, M., & Ladeira, M. 2010. The impact of business analytics on supply chain performance. Decision Support Systems, 49, 318-327.
  • Vaidyanathan, Ganesh & Sabbaghi, Asghar, (2010), “Supply Chain Intelligence and Value Creation: A Framework”. Issues in Information Systems, (9: 1) pp. 570-576.
  • Wixom B., and Watson H., 2010. The BI-Based Organisation. International Journal of Business Intelligence Research (IJBIR) (1:1), pp. 13-28.
Last updated on 26-09-2017