Materials Management, Production & Logistics
Shape the Value Chains of Tomorrow
Teaching
The lectures offered by our department cover the subject area of operational performance management. We teach the theoretical foundations and concepts along with practical applications and forms. Quantitative optimization methods play an important role.
We establish the link to corporate IT, business models, and competitive strategies. Practical examples, case studies, business simulations and field trips to companies serve this purpose.
Courses are offered in English and German, depending on the degree program.
Specialization in bachelor’s degree programs (new examination regulations)
A specific specialization in logistics and supply chain management provides sound knowledge for the challenges of the global business world. Students have the opportunity to specialize at an early stage, which is crucial given the current importance of efficient, sustainable value chains. This specialization during the bachelor’s degree lays the foundation for a comprehensive specialization in the master’s degree, which can be indicated on the degree certificate by selecting the options Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Logistics Systems & Technologies, Purchasing & Supply Management and Sustainable Global Value Chains.
Specialization in master’s degree programs
Strategically suitable integration in complex supply chains is key to a company’s success and has an impact on all of its departments. The growing environmental and resource challenges are increasingly shifting the bottleneck for companies from the sales market to the procurement market and drawing attention to the supply chain. Knowledge of supply chain management is therefore essential for graduates on the master’s degree level.
By choosing both options, students can have their supply chain management specialization indicated on their degree certificate.
Our classes for bachelor’s degree students
Learning outcomes
The students acquire basic knowledge in the operational areas of procurement, materials management, production, and logistics. They understand important terms and definitions. As a basis for decision-making skills in business administration, they are familiar with objectives and conflicting goals, they understand and are able to solve them. This includes the selection and application of basic (quantitative) analysis and planning methods. The students are able to critically assess the results of these methods with regard to the decisions to be made. Current developments in materials and production management and their impact are understood and can be realistically assessed in terms of their significance and impact.
The students’ self-management, mathematical, and IT skills are fostered through the independent solving of exercises and problems that accompany the lectures.
Curriculum
- Introduction to the operational production of goods and services and its theoretical basis
- Procurement and materials management
- Production management
- Logistic structures and systems
- Cross-company concepts (supply chain management)
Credits
5 ECTS
Language
German
Bachelor’s degree options
Leearning outcomes
The students understand the importance of supply management for a company's success. They are able to derive a procurement strategy from the corporate strategy and analyze the situation on the procurement market. They are able to define objectives for supply management and identify conflicting objectives. They are able to create and calculate specific KPIs in supply management for target definition. They are able to analyze problems in supply management from a business and practical perspective. They are able to select suitable problem-solving methods, apply them correctly, and critically assess the results. The students are able to identify current developments such as digitalization in supply management and explain their fundamental significance.
The students deepen their methodological and analytical skills and improve their teamwork, constructive discussion and criticism skills.
Curriculum
- Spend and needs analysis
- Category strategy and quotation analysis
- Negotiation, execution/contract management
- Supplier management and development/relationships between companies/controlling & reporting, IT
- Operational processes: ordering - order monitoring - receipt of goods - invoice verification - (ordering process in SAP)
- Sustainable procurement, compliance and reporting (triple bottom line)
- Digitalization of procurement
- In-depth: Global sourcing in the practice
Credits
5 ECTS
Language
German
Learning outcomes
The students are able to determine the importance of logistics for the company’s success, define logistics goals and identify conflicting goals. They are able to create and calculate key figures for goal definition and control and analyze logistical problems from a business and practical point of view. They know how to select appropriate solution methods and critically assess and apply the results. The students are familiar with current developments in logistics and understand their fundamental importance. Overall, the students deepen their methodological and analytical skills and increase their skills in the areas of teamwork, constructive discussion, and criticism.
Curriculum
- Logistics as a competitive factor
- Corporate strategy and logistics strategy
- Logistics concepts and planning methods
- Logistics controlling and key figures
- Logistics technology and IT
- Green logistics – boundary conditions (industry rules, laws, logistics market, standards)
- Areas of logistics, specific characteristics of individual industries, individual concepts such as SCM, ECR, JiT
Credits
5 ECTS
Language
English
Curriculum coming soon
Curriculum coming soon
(Subject to change)
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the module, the students are able to:
- Explain the importance of procurement for achieving corporate success.
- Explain how a procurement strategy relates to corporate strategy.
- Differentiate the strategic source-to-contract (S2C) and transactional purchase-to-pay (P2P) processes.
- Explain how sustainability affects the S2C processes and name current tools.
- Perform a basic category analysis.
- Explain the differences of and apply a structured approach for outsourcing, insourcing, offshoring, and reshoring.
- Perform a basic supplier evaluation.
- Make decisions in teams.
- Analyze, justify, and present their decisions in case study discussions.
Curriculum
- What is purchasing and supply management
- Selecting and calculating economic, environmental, and social KPIs in procurement
- The purchasing process: strategic & transactional issues
- Structuring to meet customer and competitive needs
- Socially responsible sourcing in light of changing legal requirements (such as the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act)
- Sourcing risk management and mitigation in light of supply disruptions (such as COVID-19)
- Contemporary supply risk/sustainability analysis tools (such as Risk Methods, Prewave, HGS Research)
- Category analysis & sourcing strategy development
- Outsourcing and insourcing, offshoring and reshoring
- Supplier evaluation and selection
- Purchasing & supply organization
- In all of these topics: coverage of sustainability, digitalization and risk management aspects
Credits
5 ECTS
Language
English
(Subject to change)
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the module, the students will be able to:
- Explain the importance of and provide examples for the role of sustainability in global value and supply chains.
- Summarize key governance mechanisms in global value chains.
- Illustrate different supply chain designs geared toward creating shared value.
- Characterize certain key capabilities for creating shared value.
- Discuss differences and similarities between the global value chain and global supply chain literature.
- Make decisions in teams.
- Analyze, justify, and present their decisions in case study discussions.
Curriculum
- Sustainability and resilience in a global economy in light of supply disruptions (such as COVID-19) and changing legal & reporting requirements (such as the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act; Global Reporting Initiative)
- Global value chains (in the field of international business) versus global supply chains (in the field of supply chain management)
- Global value chain configuration and governance (for economic, social, and environmental upgrading)
- Sustainable supply chain design (SSCD) and related capabilities for creating shared value
- The role of (social) intermediaries for creating shared value
- Moving toward a circular economy: From chains to systems
- Circular supply chain design (CSCD) and related capabilities
Credits
5 ECTS
Language
English
Our classes for master’s degree students
Learning outcomes
The students understand how supply chains can be designed, planned, managed, and controlled across companies: supply chain management (SCM). They are able to analyze and explain how supply chain management is derived from the respective corporate strategy, industry requirements and the corporate environment. They are able to review and evaluate the objectives, elements, and processes of SCM and classify different supply chains. They know the important strategic and operational concepts, are able to plan supply chains and develop measures to improve their performance with these concepts. They are able to monitor the achievement of objectives with adapted key performance indicators.
In case study discussions, the students’ analytical, rhetorical, and argumentative skills are trained. Working in groups fosters the students’ teamwork and decision-making skills.
Curriculum
- Simulation of a supply chain using an example to introduce the problems of Supply Chain Management (SCM).
- Objectives (profit, customer service, sustainability, risk limitation) in SCM, management and control with SC-specific key figures
- Derivation of SCM from corporate strategy and strategic fit, generic SC strategies, and SC structures
- Coordination problems in SC and approaches to solving them (lot sizes, unique orders, price-sales curve)
- Concept of the six drivers of SC performance (factories/sites, warehouses, transportation, information (IT and digitalization), procurement (organization and processes, supplier management, sustainability) and price control).
- In addition, specific planning aspects and details are covered in more depth (such as lean management in SC; aggregate planning, sales and operations planning)
Credits
6 ECTS
Language
English
Master’s degree options
Learning outcomes
The lecture provides students with basic knowledge about the role of digitalization in logistics and supply chain management (SCM) along with practical knowledge on the application of selected digital tools. Based on several real-life and realistic case studies, the students learn how to use common software solutions for problems in the areas of data processing & analysis, process modelling, visualization & dashboards, simulation and logistics planning. As many of the methods and systems covered are not only used in logistics, but also in other disciplines such as marketing, students gain valuable methodological knowledge in the course that they can also use to their advantage outside of logistics.
To support successful learning, the units are taught using practical examples and accompanied by practical computer exercises. Practice groups are formed at the beginning of the semester to work on the accompanying exercises and homework. These groups will also work on a larger homework assignment at the end of the semester, during which different methods and tools will be applied.
The students learn the practical application of relevant methods and tools in the context of logistics and supply chain management. The students also learn about examples of software solutions from the field and their basic application in logistics and SCM. In addition, the students are able to select and apply the correct methods and tools depending on the problem. Their ability to work in teams is strengthened by completing exercises and a case study in small groups.
Curriculum
- Introduction to digitalization in logistics and SCM – fundamentals & frameworks
- Overview and structuring of relevant methods and IT systems in logistics and SCM
- Advanced planning/end-to-end supply chain planning
- Interorganizational systems and communication standards in the supply chain
- IT development in logistics and SCM
- Digitalization as an enabler and disruptor in logistics & SCM
- New business models through digitalization
- Consolidation and application of selected methods and systems (data processing and analysis, data visualization, simulation in logistics & SCM, logistics planning)
- Efficient point-of-sales strategies, in particular POS communication and category management
- Completion of related homework and a larger case study with presentation of results in small groups at the end of the semester
- Expert lecture(s) on IT solutions in logistics & SCM from the industry
Credits
6 ECTS
Language
German
Learning outcomes
The students get an overview of the importance of PSM for achieving corporate success and implementing sustainable global supply chains. After understanding how PSM relates to supply chain management, the role of corporate buying for corporate performance and overall sustainability of supply chains is highlighted. The students are able to explain financial, environmental, and social implications of corporate procurement decisions. They get an overview of the strategic source-to-contract (S2C) and transactional purchase-to-pay (P2P) processes. Practicing this with case studies, they are able to derive a procurement strategy from corporate strategy and know how to derive a category strategy from analyzing internal demand and the supply market based on a state-of-the-art template. The students are able to define sourcing objectives and explain tradeoffs. They are able to define and calculate basic key performance indicators (KPIs) in PSM. Current trends like digitalization and sustainable sourcing are highlighted throughout the sessions and students are able to discuss their implications.
The students improve their methodological and analytical skills, along with their ability to work in teams, discuss constructively, and be open to suggestions for improvement.
Curriculum
- How to derive a procurement strategy from corporate strategy (case study)
- Selecting and calculating economic, environmental, and social KPIs in procurement (case study)
- Strategic versus transactional PSM processes: How to organize PSM and changing buyer profiles (case study)
- Deriving category strategies applying a state-of-the-art sourcing template and contemporary spend analysis tools, such as Sievo
- Devising supplier management and development processes based on category strategies (case study)
- Supply risk management in light of supply disruptions (such as COVID-19) and changing legal requirements (such as the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act) with contemporary risk analysis tools, like RiskMethods, Prewave
Credits
6 ECTS
Language
English