Building Resilient Supply Chains

By completing this program, you will be able to undertake more effective supply chain actions that will enable you to:

• Cope with volatile business conditions and provide superior customer service levels
  
• Reduce costs for your company as well as your supply chain partners and customers
• Improve resilience and robustness in global, dynamic markets
• Design better product and service offerings
  
• Reduce lead times, inventories and waste
• Harness technologies like blockchain and IoT for the blockchain
• Improve quality and sustainability efforts
  

If you wish to stay current in state-of-the-art supply chain management practices and digital supply chain technologies, including business data analytics, blockchain, Internet of Things, and harnessing social media channels, this certification is for you.

This program will also help prepare you if you are seeking such professional certifications as Certified Supply Chain Professional or  Certified in Production and Inventory Management with the Association for Supply Chain Management; as well as certifications of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and Institute for Supply Management.

• Supply chain strategy and organizing for improvements - Supply chain mapping; forming steering committees of key partners; identification of major problem areas; formulation of joint strategies, information sharing and trust building measures; setting overall goals and metrics for supply chain performance; and organizing for improvements
• Integrated product-process redesign - Rethinking products, services and processes and reconfiguring supply chains; reorganizing new product development processes; early involvement of suppliers in design; coordination of multifirm design activities; principles of postponement
• Demand forecasting - New approaches to demand forecasting in supply chains
• Sales and operations planning and inventory management - New approaches to production planning and inventory management, collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment systems; measures to counter bullwhip effects; interorganizational inventory management, information systems requirements; process redesign for traceability using blockchain technologies
• Strategic sourcing and procurement management - Implementation of strategic sourcing; managing supplier relationships, strategic alliances, vendor managed inventory operation; e-procurement and B2B marketplaces
• Distribution and logistics management - Distribution system models: basic variables, performance metrics and trade-offs; internet models for distribution; changing roles of warehouses; logistics outsourcing: third party and fourth party logistics service functions
• Supply risk management and resilience - Identification of vulnerabilities and mitigation tactics; cultivation of agility throughout the supply chain to augment fast recovery and resilience of the supply chain; stress tests and simulation
• Supply chain continuous improvement - Value stream mapping, Supply Chain Operations Reference framework, five phases of Lean Six Sigma; organizing for supply chain improvement, acting on metrics

• PC (Windows-based) or MAC
• Class sessions are delivered via Zoom, therefore robust internet access is required to attend the sessions. Firefox or Chrome are recommended.
• MS Office

The program consists of six 2-hour interactive lecture sessions, based on specific learning objectives for each of the topic areas mentioned above. Sessions will be delivered via Zoom meetings. The program also includes weekly quizzes and problem-solving through short cases, along with spreadsheet-based tools and techniques for supply chain design, inventory management and optimization of sourcing and distribution networks. A basic knowledge of MS Excel is required.

For participants in the continental U.S., your certificate will be sent via United States Postal Service upon completion of the program. For participants outside the continental U.S., certificates will be sent via United Parcel Service.

Nallan Suresh

UB Distinguished Professor
Operations Management and Strategy

Nallan Suresh, PhD, specializes in manufacturing, global logistics and supply chain management. He is a leading researcher and educator in supply chain management, lean manufacturing, logistics management and production planning and control. He is also associate director of UB’s Stephen Still Institute for Sustainable Transportation and Logistics.

Suresh is author of the book, Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (Kluwer-Springer). He is a recipient of the Alfred Bodine/Society of Manufacturing Engineers Award for Studies in Machine Tool Economics; the Joseph T.J. Stewart Faculty Scholarship; and the Sustained Achievement Exceptional Scholar Award at State University of New York.

His current research is in the areas of supply chain agility, disruption risk mitigation and response and application of blockchain and IoT technologies in supply chains. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, and other universities for many years.

Suresh has conducted numerous training programs for senior executives in the U.S., Netherlands, China, India, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka and other countries for more than two decades.

Payment must be received by the program start date to be granted access and can be made by credit card at the time of registration or by ACH transfer.

A 75% discount is available to a limited number of Executive MBA alumni through the Alumni Advantage program. Availability is on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact the Office of Professional and Executive Development at mgt-ced@buffalo.edu.

Discounted seats are available to employees of the University at Buffalo on a space-available basis. Contact the Office of Professional and Executive Development at mgt-ced@buffalo.edu.

Program registrations are fully refundable until the day before the program starts.