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MITx: Supply Chain Design

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Learn how to design and optimize the physical, financial, and information flows of a supply chain to enhance business performance ​– part of the MITx MicroMasters Credential in Supply Chain Management​.

13 weeks
8–12 hours per week
Instructor-paced
Instructor-led on a course schedule
Free
Optional upgrade available

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Starts Jan 8, 2025
Ends Apr 17, 2025
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Starts Jun 25, 2025
Ends Sep 19, 2025
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Supply Chain Design

About this course

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This Supply Chain Design course is part of the MITx MicroMasters Credential in Supply Chain Management, offered by #1 ranked SCM Master's program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

CTL.SC2x Supply Chain Design covers all aspects involved in the design of supply chains for companies and organizations anywhere in the world. The course is divided into four main topic areas: Physical flow design, Supply chain finance, Information flow design, and Organization/Process design. In the design of physical flows, we show how to formulate and solve Transportation, Transshipment, Facility Location, and Network Design Problems. For financial flows we show how to translate supply chain concepts and actions into the language of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a company. We cover Activity Based Costing, Working Capital, the Cash-to-Cash cycle and Discounted Cash Flow Analysis. The design of the information flow section describes how firms communicate with suppliers (procurement, risk contracts), internal resources (production planning, bills of materials, material requirements planning), and customers (Sales & Operations Planning and other collaboration based processes). In the last section, we introduce performance metric design and organizational design within the supply chain organization focusing mainly on the centralize/decentralize decision.

The main topic areas we will focus on in this course are:

  • Supply Chain Network Design
  • Supply Chain Finance
  • Supplier Management
  • Production and Demand Planning
  • Process and Organizational Design

This course is indispensable if you’re considering a supply chain management career and, specifically, the positions of Supply Chain Analyst , Operations Manager , or Logistics Coordinator.

This is an open enrollment course , making it accessible for almost anyone, anywhere in the world to enroll and learn for free.

At a glance

  • Language: English
  • Video Transcript: English
  • Associated skills:Working Capital, Supply Chain Planning, Performance Metric, Process Design, Planning, Supply Chain Management, Sales, Activity-Based Costing, Finance, Organizational Architecture, Operations, Network Planning And Design, Benefits Enrollment Processes, Discounted Cash Flow, Procurement, Production Planning, Material Requirements Planning, Bill Of Materials, Supply Chain

What you'll learn

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  • Network Design and Facility Location
  • Supply Chain Finance
  • Procurement and sourcing
  • Production planning
  • Demand management and Sales & Operations Planning

Syllabus

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Week 1: Overview of Supply Chain Design: Introduction to Network Flow models.
Week 2: Basic Supply Chain Network Design: Facility Location and Network Design problems.
Week 3: Advanced Supply Chain Network Design: Modeling multiple products, multiple echelons, and multiple time periods.
Week 4: Supply Chain Finance I: Activity Based Costing, Working Capital, and Cash-to-Cash conversation cycle.
Week 5: Supply Chain Finance II: Discounted cash flow analysis and capital budgeting and investing.
Week 6: Supplier Management I: Auctions, sourcing, and procurement.
Week 7: Supplier Management II: Optimization based procurement, and risk sharing.
Week 8: Production Planning: Introduction to Bills of Material (BOM), Material Resource Planning (MRP) systems, and Distribution Resource Planning (DRP) systems.
Week 9: Demand Management: Challenges of collaboration with customers and management levers to improve coordination.
Week 10: Process & Organizational Design: The design of the supply chain organization itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

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MITx requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code. MITx will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the MITx course; revocation of any certificates received for the MITx course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations.

MITx MicroMasters Credential in Supply Chain Management

The MITx MicroMasters Credential in Supply Chain Management is specifically designed and administered by MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL) to teach the critical skills needed to be successful in this exciting and growing field. In addition to being a standalone certificate demonstrating expertise in the field, students who complete all of the required courses and the final proctored exam will be qualified to apply to gain credit at MIT for the blended graduate master's degree program. In order to qualify for the MITx MicroMasters Credential in Supply Chain Management you need to earn a Verified Certificate in all of the required courses. When you register for a Verified Certificate you will also be granted access to additional practice problems, supplemental readings, and opportunities for increased interaction with the faculty and teaching staff.

To learn more about the MITx MicroMasters Credential in Supply Chain Management, please visit https://micromasters.mit.edu/scm/

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners residing in one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.

This course is part of Supply Chain Management MicroMasters Program

Learn more 
Expert instruction
6 graduate-level courses
Instructor-led
Assignments and exams have specific due dates
1 year 6 months
8 - 12 hours per week

Ways to take this course

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Certificate

Free

Price

$299 USD

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Expires on Apr 9, 2025

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