COURSE NUMBER: MBA 248A.1

This course is cross-listed with the EWMBA Program and the College of Engineering

COURSE TITLE: Supply Chain Management

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3.0

INSTRUCTOR: Ramesh Bollapragada

E-MAIL ADDRESS: rameshb@haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://bspace.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Mondays, 6:00 – 9:30PM (August 29 – November 28)

PREREQUISITE(S): MBA204 (or) Graduate coursework in operations management

CLASS FORMAT: The course is comprised of lectures, case discussions, management games, excel based software projects, guest speakers and exams.

REQUIRED READINGS:

· 1 required text “Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operation,” Sunil Chopra & Peter Mendl, 4^th Edition, Prentice-Hall.

· HBS articles (5 required readings & 3 additional readings).

· Other relevant supplemental material.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Class Participation, group submission of HBS Case articles, and Excel based software projects, team based online simulation games, midterm and final exam.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

Supply Chain Management involves the flow of material and information among all of the firms that contribute value to a product, from the source of raw materials to the end customers. To gain competitive edge in the current market place, supply chain management has emerged as a major area for companies. Managing supply chains is a complex and challenging task, given the current business trends of expanding product variety, increasing outsourcing, globalization of business, and continuous advances in information technology.

When a company faces the pressure of excessive inventories, degraded customer service, escalating costs and declining profits, or a poor return on assets, its supply chain is out of control. On the other hand, when a company moves into new markets or new technologies, it must have its supply chain prepared for new business challenges and opportunities.

The course will introduce students to concepts and techniques related to the strategic design, management and improvement of supply chains and supply chain operations, through real world cases and management games. Sample topics covered in the case studies include: Global supply networks, outsourcing & third-party logistics, manufacturing & distribution strategy in supply chains, supply chain collaboration, and sustainable supply chains.

The course also focuses on the development and application of decision models in the areas of supply chains with emphasis on demand forecasting, inventory management, supply network design, transportation, coordination and information technology in supply chains.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Ramesh Bollapragada is an Associate Professor in the decision sciences department of the college of business, SF state university, San Francisco. Prior to joining SF state, he was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories Research, Lucent Technologies in Holmdel, NJ for six years. Dr. Bollapragada has a B.Tech. and M.S. in electrical & electronics engineering from India and a M.S. and Ph.D. in management of manufacturing and automation from the school of business, Carnegie Mellon university, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. His research interests are in the areas of inventory and supply chain optimization, forecasting, scheduling and economic lot-sizing, telecommunication network planning, outsourcing and transportation.

Ramesh has taught over 20 MBA & EMBA courses during his 9 year tenure at SF State in the areas of operations management, supply chain management, business forecasting, total quality systems, and simulation. In addition, he has taught at premier business schools in the world such as HEC school of management, Paris and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

Ramesh received several academic awards and several management awards during his industrial career: Some important ones include, the “Research Professor of year award for two consecutive years: 2004-200, 2005-2006” at the College of business, SF State university and multiple United States Patents during his tenure at Bell Labs, Research. He was a visiting research professor to top universities in U.S, France, Italy, Finland, Ireland, and India.

Ramesh presented at over twenty international conferences in U.S. Europe and India. In addition, his research is published in over a dozen international journals as: Management Science, Naval Research Logistics, Informs Journal of Computing, Interfaces, IIE Transactions on Scheduling and Logistics, Transportation Journal, European Journal of Operational Research, OR Letters, International Journal of Production Research.

For more details, please refer to his website: http://online.sfsu.edu/~rameshb