SECTION Links
Program links:
NC State College of Management
_________
_________
Downloads:
Site links:
Duke Energy Graduate Assistantship
Duke Energy Graduate Assistantship Recipient '06/07
MBA Supply Chain Management Concentration
at NC State University
Integrated SCM Perspective | Industry/University Partnership |Curriculum | Student Projects
Our practical curriculum emphasizes the nature and essence of SCM, enabling students to develop strong, valuable, professional skills. The program emphasizes a global approach to SCM, and facilitates the global perspective through affiliations with Chinese and European universities, companies and organizations.
Traditional supply chain programs have grown out of Operations Management, Purchasing and Logistics. The easiest way to construct a Supply Chain Management curriculum has been to select from the menu of courses offered in those separate fields and hope that the integrated SCM perspective somehow comes across. Unfortunately, many students only end up with an understanding of the pieces rather than the integrated nature of the supply chain.
The MBA Supply Chain Management Concentration at NC State offers:
- Integrated SCM curriculum – not just logistics or procurement
- Contact with national and international SCRC member company professionals
- Real company projects solving real industry problems as part of the coursework
- Consistently high placement of SCM Concentration graduates
Integrated SCM Perspective
This concentration focuses on the study of business relationships between a company, its suppliers and its customers. Students develop in-depth knowledge of the entire flow of the end-to-end supply chain, from raw materials to finished products. A special emphasis is placed on information and supply flow throughout the process.
Although more universities are offering degrees in SCM, many programs have been built on traditional procurement, operations or logistics foundations. At NC State, we provide an education in the integration-oriented skills required of successful SCM graduates in a global community.
The industry demand is for MBA graduates who can integrate and optimize all the steps required to produce the right amount of the right product or service and deliver it to the end user at the right time. The supply manager’s role is interdisciplinary – a role that spans logistics and distribution, purchasing, manufacturing, inventory management, and even marketing and product development, and draws skills from many other academic backgrounds.
Not just a Purchasing MBAThe purchasing component of this integrated SCM concentration develops major themes and strategies of Supply Chain Management relationships. The focus is on performance measurement, relationship assessment, negotiation, contracting, and managing conflict in business relationships in a globally integrated supply chain. In this context, relationships may exist between internal functional groups, as well as with suppliers and/or customers. The focus of the course is on collaboration and strategy execution. Emphasis is on for assessing, establishing metrics/expectations, contracting, and managing external business relationships in sourcing, logistics and operations. However, many of the concepts will be explored primarily from the perspective of the purchasing/sourcing perspective, and less emphasis will be placed on the marketing/sales perspective.
Not just a Logistics MBAThe logistics component utilizes a variety of tools and frameworks are presented in order to help students understand the basis behind effective logistics decision-making and how it relates to broader issues in managing the entire supply chain and fulfilling the strategic objectives of a firm. The methods used to convey and develop these ideas include a mix of traditional lecture, interactive class discussion, case study analysis, spreadsheet exercises, and independent research. The course material is drawn from a number of sources, including a recently published textbook, recent articles from the popular business press, and articles from academic journals
Industry/University Partnership
The program is supported by the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC), a unique industry/university partnership representing supply chains from a broad spectrum of industries. Through the SCRC, students and faculty interact regularly with 15 to 20 partner companies to solve real industry problems through course projects and focused research assignments.
The partnership demonstrates a new model of education for business schools. It serves the students by providing an opportunity to work with professional supply chain managers at all levels of responsibility on real industry problems through structured projects as part of their coursework. It serves the member companies by bringing applied research and knowledge creation to help them achieve supply chain excellence. These projects cover a wide range of SC activities and are designed as an integral aspect of all required SCM courses, enabling practical application of learned skills.
Curriculum
Courses in the MBA Supply Chain Management Concentration stress the integrated nature of SCM and still ensure that sufficient skills are developed in the specific topic areas covered in more traditional programs.
Traditional supply chain programs at many universities have grown out of Operations Management, Purchasing and Logistics. The easiest way to construct a supply chain curriculum was to select from the menu of courses offered in those fields, and hope that the integrated SCM perspective somehow happened. Unfortunately, many students only end up with an understanding of the pieces, not of the whole nature of the supply chain. Subsequently, the power of SCM is often lost.
At NC State, the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) and program faculty work on ways to structure the supply chain curriculum to emphasize the nature and essence of SCM while developing successful professional skills in the students. The SCRC uniquely and successfully brings industry into the classroom, enlisting faculty and students for researching solutions to the real industry problems of corporate professionals. The four required SCM courses consist of a combination of classroom instruction and student/company projects.
Fall 1
Economics for Managers
Managing People in a High-Tech Environment
Statistics & Quantitative Methods
Survey of Accounting
Managerial Effectiveness I
Spring 1
Managerial Finance
Marketing Management and Strategy
Production & Operations Management
Managerial Effectiveness II
Supply Chain Relationships - Major themes and strategies of SCM relationships including performance measurement, relationship assessment and negotiation, and managing conflict in globally integrated supply chains.Supply Chain
Summer
Supply Chain Management Internship
Fall 2
Strategic Management
Supply Chain Information Flows - Emphasizes the critical role and function of information in the performance of extended supply chains through examples, case studies and exercises.
Logistics - Covers the basis behind effective logistics decision-making and how it relates to the broader issues in managing the entire supply chain.
IT ELECTIVE
Spring 2
Supply Chain Management Practicum - The capstone of the SCM MBA concentration. Features a team-based project designed to solve a real issue for an SCRC partner company and to recommend a solution for implementation.
ELECTIVE
ELECTIVE
Global Business Elective
SCM electives include: Project Management, Cost Management, Managing Global Decision Risks and Independent Study.
top
Student Projects
Projects sponsored by the SCRC give students the opportunity to work with professionals at all levels of responsibility on real industry problems as part of the coursework. Students put lessons in process mapping, project planning & implementation, and total cost analysis into practice by solving problems for real companies. Projects are structured to provide two levels of learning… application of technical skills and practice in managing team dynamics.
Projects cover a wide range of SC activities, and are designed as an integral aspect of all required SCM courses, enabling practical application of leaned skills.
Take aways:
Cutting edge concepts
New tools
Practical applications
Team management skill-building
Industry best practices
Emerging technologies
Process improvements
Research techniques
Applicable, quantifiable experience
Supply chain networking exposure
Practical dynamics and understanding
Project management
Testimonial from MBA 05
When I took your 590S course, we did a case on Pacific Systems for the midterm. I actually enjoyed that assignment quite a bit.
I have just completed an on-site fuel bid analysis for the trucking company with which I am employed. For the summary, I used much from the Pacific Systems case, minus the research and text. The paper I submitted was only two paragraphs of text, but 6 pages of tables tailored slightly from the midterm paper. It only took about four hours to complete the paper, once I had collected the data, and this included time to stress over the details.
One result was the following note from our company president:
I explored your Summary Report on the Wet-hose Bid last night. I was quite impressed and pleased with your analysis and professionalism in the process and evaluation of the bids. In my eyes we have ‘raised the bar’ internally on our ability and process procedures.