Basics of Supply Chain Management Course Outline  Developed to fulfill the need for fundamental education in the manufacturing and resource management industry, this workshop provides a basic understanding of the planning and control of the flow of materials into, through, and out of organizations. This course also provides a basis for further study leading to certification. 

Objectives--At the end of the Basics of Supply Chain Management Workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand the role, objectives, and responsibilities of materials management .
• Describe basic forecasting principles and compare basic forecasting techniques. 
• Understand the purpose and function of production planning and master production scheduling. 
• Explain the material requirements planning process. 
• Describe the objectives of capacity management and its relation to priority planning. 
• Understand the functions of inventories and the objectives of inventory management. 
• Identify the costs of quality. 
• Understand the importance of purchasing, its objectives, and the steps in the purchasing cycle. 
• Know the relative importance of the factors that must be considered in establishing specifications. 
• Define Just-in-Time .
• Show how total quality management can reduce lot size, lead time, and work in process. 

Outline Introduction to Materials Management This session has two primary goals. The first is to help the participant understand the role of manufacturing in our economy and the basic types of manufacturing processes. The second is to describe materials management and to discuss the need for materials management. Forecasting In this session, participants learn the factors influencing demand. Participants also learn basic principles of forecasting and the sources of forecast error. In addition, participants acquire an understanding of the principles of data collection. Master Planning This session gives participants fundamental information about the purpose and function of production planning and master production scheduling. 

Topics covered in this session include manufacturing planning and control, making a production plan, developing a make-to-stock production plan, resource requirements planning, and developing a master production schedule.

 Material Requirements Planning:   In this session, participants learn the nature of demand and the use of material requirements planning. They also learn the purposes and formats of bills of material. Lead time and its components are discussed in this session. 

Capacity Management and Production Activity Control:   This session has two purposes. The first is to provide a basic understanding of capacity management, and the second is to provide a basic understanding of the function and operation of production activity control. Participants learn how to determine rated or calculated capacity and to describe the basic techniques of scheduling. Inventory Fundamentals In this session, methods of inventory management are described, and participants learn the necessity for good inventory management and the costs of ordering and carrying inventory. In addition, participants learn to understand simple financial statements and calculate a simple inventory turns ratio. 

Inventory Management:   This session provides a discussion of inventory management, which seeks to provide the required level of customer service at minimum cost. Two basic questions of inventory management are explored: how much to order and when to order. Participants also gain an understanding of the periodic review system and cycle counting. The order point concept, economic order quantity, and service level are also discussed. 

Physical Distribution:  This session concludes the topic of inventory management with a discussion of ABC inventory control. The session then discusses physical distribution. Participants learn the activities that are included in the physical distribution system, gain a basic understanding of warehouse activities, and learn about the different transportation modes. 

Quality Management and Purchasing:   In this session, quality management is discussed as a series of problem-detection and problem-solving techniques that help employees and management address the problems associated with producing a perfect product every time. The session teaches basic techniques for quality management, including Pareto analysis and fishbone diagrams. The session concludes with a brief discussion of purchasing. 

Just-in-Time Manufacturing:   Just-in-Time is a philosophy that defines how a company organizes and operates its business. This session shows how Just-in-Time manufacturing is an outcome of total quality management, basic industrial engineering practices, inventory management, process design, and product design. 

Who Should Attend?  This workshop is ideal for the person who is either new to the industry or is looking to advance into management and requires a basic knowledge of materials management. Anyone active in (or planning to become active in) the daily operations or management of production planning, purchasing, or operational control will benefit from this program.

Please email us EDUCATION@BARRONS-AUXIER.COM and discuss what we may do to meet your company’s needs.

(This course description comes from APICS materials).