LOGI0016-1 : Quality, Ethics and Sustainability in Supply Chain Management

Study Programmes 2015-2016

LOGI0016-1

Quality, Ethics and Sustainability in Supply Chain Management

Duration :

30h Th

Number of credits :

Master in business engineering (120 ECTS)		5
Master in business engineering (120 ECTS)		5

Lecturer :

Maud Bay, Yves Crama, Virginie Xhauflair

Coordinator :

Yves Crama

Language(s) of instruction :

English language

Organisation and examination :

Teaching in the second semester

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Course contents :

There is a strong interrelation between the economic performance of an organization and its value to the society at large, including its immediate stakeholders (customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, etc.), but also its physical and human environment.
This course examines ways in which an organization can manage its supply chain processes so as to simultaneously take these different dimensions into account. This involves, in particular,

putting in place specific quality management systems which ensure that all processes deliver results in line with the objectives of the organization and with the requirements or expectations of the customers and other interested parties;
understanding and evaluating the ethical and environmental implications of the decisions made by the organization in terms of product design, production process, transportation, facility design and location, recycling and reprocessing, etc.
identifying organizational and managerial tools which allow organizations to set up a virtuous circle where quality, ethics and sustainability reinforce each other.

Learning outcomes of the course :

Upon completion of this course, the students will understand and will be able to formulate critical opinions about quality, ethics and sustainability issues in the management of organizations.
They will be familiarized with fundamental concepts like

total quality management, quality assurance, certification, statistical process control, lean management;
business ethics, corporate social responsibility, ethics in the supply chain management, conflicts of interest;
life cycle of a product, environmental footprint of products and processes, energy and resource scarcity, closed-loop supply chain and sustainability reporting.

Intended Learning Outcomes addressed by the course:

Strengthening knowledge and understanding of basic management disciplines in order to use them to perform a rigorous analysis of a management situation and provide pertinent solutions
Capacity to research autonomously and methodically the information needed to solve a complex, transversal management problem, to perform a rigorous analysis of it and to suggest pertinent solutions
Being capable of professional team work
Developing a critical sense (arguing)
Developing a transversal, global vision
Ability to understand and to speak English
Professional capacity for oral communication
Professional capacity for written communication

Prerequisite knowledge and skills :

Fundamentals of supply chain management: production systems, logistics, inventories, and their relation with the strategic objectives of the firm.
Inferential statistics: confidence intervals.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

Presentations by the lecturers and by guest speakers.
Readings (professional and academic literature).
Case studies and projects.
Presentations by the students.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

Face-to-face