Digital Supply Chain Management MSc

Compulsory modules

• Digital Supply Chain

  • 15 credits
  • 30 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 12 hours per week self-directed study.

  This module introduces you to the frontiers of digitalisation in supply chains. The key technologies behind modern supply chain designs are highlighted and their impact on how products and services are produced and delivered are analysed.

  You will be familiarized with high-level strategies for digitalisation and concrete applications in areas such as manufacturing, supply chain management, and service delivery.

• Analytics for Supply Chain Management

  • 15 credits
  • 30 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 12 hours per week self-directed study.

  This module introduces you to some important methods relevant to supply chain management from the fields of analytics.  Many problems in today’s business world are often too complex to rely simply on intuition and common sense.

  The application of analytics is critical for firms to improve the quality of business decisions by grounding those decision in analyses of available data and quantitative methods.

  This module investigates principal analytical methods for understanding data and guiding decision-making related to various aspects of managing a supply chain.

• Supply Chain Fundamentals

  • 15 credits
  • 30 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 12 hours per week self-directed study.

  This module will ensure that you have a strong foundation to understand the more specialist supply chain management concepts and frameworks, This module will expose you to a range of basic and fundamental supply chain related concepts as well as the global and relevant supply chain management cases.

  Some of the contemporary supply chain management (SCM) issues, such as digitalisation, sustainability, risk management, will be also covered briefly.

• Business Process Management

  • 15 credits
  • 30 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 12 hours per week self-directed study.

  The objective is to develop an understanding of how managers can design, analyse, measure, and improve processes to improve an organisation’s performance and attain long-term competitive advantage.

  This module therefore takes a detailed look at the responsibilities, issues and decisions required to manage these business processes within an organisation effectively.

Compulsory modules

• Sustainability in Digital Supply Chains

  • 15 credits
  • 18 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 8 hours per week self-directed study.

  In this module, you will learn about supply chain sustainability and the complex ethical, social, and environmental responsibilities of business organisations towards a range of stakeholders.

  You will also examine the challenges and requirements of building sustainable products and sustainable supply chains across a wide range of contexts with a focus on the practical application to real-world business situations.

• Purchasing and Supply Management

  • 15 credits
  • 30 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 12 hours per week self-directed study.

  In this module, you will learn about digital procurement.

  Through the examination of core procurement principles, frameworks, and tools, you will gain an understanding of how to plan and execute a procurement strategy that supports corporate goals and broader business objectives. You will learn about the role of integration, data, and analytics in digital procurement.

  You will also observe various digital technologies used in procurement that create opportunities for process automation, frictionless supply chain collaboration, and smarter procurement based on data science.

• Supply Chain Finance and Risk Management

  • 15 credits
  • 30 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 12 hours per week self-directed study.

  The module aims to provide you with a profound understanding of the role of finance and risk management in supply chains, including the specific technologies that are used by the industry and banks. More specifically, you will explore various supply chain finance related issues such as:

  1. working capital optimisation with a focus on the role of technology in managing receivables, payables and inventories
  2. trade credit and technology-based financing techniques such as reverse factoring and dynamic discounting
  3. risk management strategies including the identification, assessment and mitigation of operational as well as financial risks within the supply chain using digital solutions.

  All these topics have in common that they are enabled by innovative technologies that are becoming increasing popular for managing digital supply chains.

• Machine Learning for Logistics

  • 15 credits
  • 30 hours over ten weeks in lectures
  • 12 hours per week self-directed study and group work.

  This module takes a detailed look at the decisions managers need to make about logistics and supply chains. The module provides conceptual, analytical and practical insights into the effective management of supply chain in all organisations, in both the private and the public sectors.

  The module is concerned with large and small organisations from all over the world. This module introduces you to the analytical techniques from the discipline of management science required to be able to do this.

You will choose to do either a General Research Project alongside three specialist electives, or you may study five electives plus the Career Management Skills and Research methods module.

• General Research Project

  This module will help you integrate your learning across a range of skills and in particular to enable you to demonstrate the results of your learning through the development of a final project. You may choose to complete more traditional academic desk research, complete a business plan or carry out a consultancy project and any reasonable proposal is acceptable providing that it is agreed with the project supervisor and the course director

• Career Management Skills and Research Methods

  Supporting your wider learning and career success through the development of key transferrable skills and attributes that you will use both in your programme and across your career. In particular: research and analysis, career planning and employability skills development, and sustainable working.

  Develop a grounding in research methods, targeted to your particular degree requirements. You will be able to use these skills to support your learning, substantiate your arguments and make assessments about the nature of the evidence you are using.

  Career and employability skills development, delivered in a highly targeted and applied format throughout the year, will help you develop your aspirations, take a planned and efficient approach to your job search and / or entrepreneurial plans, and help you create a strong base from which to manage your career in the longer term. The content of this module will also help you understand how to apply your learning in the wider context of your career.

Electives offered in 2024

• Careers Management Skills and Research Methods
• Essentials of Accounting and Finance
• Ethics, Society & the Finance Sector
• FinTech - Financial Services in the Digital Age
• Negotiation Skill for Multidiscipline Managers
• Practicing Management in the Digital Age
• Project Leadership
• Retail Supply Chain Management
• Fintech in Shipping & Energy Trade and Finance
• Shipping Risk Management
• Strategic Service Management.

International electives

• Creating Value with Suppliers (taught in Bologna, Italy)
• Procurement (taught in Mannheim, Germany).

Please note that electives are subject to change and availability.