Logistics and Supply Chain Management

MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Logistics and supply chain management bring together the business skills to manage the activities and flows of information between suppliers, manufacturers, logistics service providers, retailers and consumers.

Logistics analysis is critical to success in both manufacturing and service industries. Competitive advantage will increasingly come from the supplier's ability to rapidly respond to changing customer needs, for which effective logistics are of prime importance.

This pathway focuses on the integration of analytical techniques for optimisation with the decision issues and technology relating to logistics and supply chain management. It covers a range of modules that combine lectures, tutorials, practical sessions to solve case studies using software.

It aims to:

• Provide an understanding of logistics and supply chain management.
• Provides an understanding of the available methods to model and solve optimisation and scheduling problems in logistics and supply chain management.
• Provide implementation skills to solve logistics and supply chain management problems using optimisation and simulation software.
• Develop intellectual, analytical, and problem-solving skills that will help develop professional and interpersonal abilities.

Stage 2 (Master’s Degree) Course content

Supply Chain Management: This unit gives students advanced skills to deal with problems of supply chain management across different products, locations, and companies. The types of problems studied in this course are encountered in industry (e.g. retail, discrete or continuous production, logistics service providers) as well as in service organisations (e.g. banks, hospitals, lawyer firms). Managers dealing with such problems are known under various titles, including production, operations, supply (chain), inventory, purchasing, distribution, or logistics managers. Supply chain management is a philosophy, the implementation process, and the control of this process through which different entities within a supply chain aim to streamline their activities to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of meeting final customer requirements. A variety of different techniques will be investigated, ranging from conceptual frameworks, analytical approaches, to computer-based models.

Logistics Modelling: Most problems arising in the fields of logistics and supply chain management have sufficient complexity and detail that they require the use of sophisticated modelling techniques. This unit looks at two of the most commonly used methodologies for modelling and solving logistics problems: simulation and heuristic techniques. In both cases a computer package is used to assist solution. The techniques will be demonstrated with a range of case studies drawn from the field of logistics including transportation, supply chain configuration and management, warehouse design and layout, container port layout, production planning, and vehicle routing.

Operations Management: This unit teaches techniques from the field of operations management that are relevant to the wider field of logistics. The commonly used technique of linear and integer programming will be taught using Microsoft Excel based methods for solution. Case studies relating production planning, transportation, logistics planning, and supply chain configuration will be given. Methods for location facilities such as factories, distribution centres, cross docking centres, and retail outlets in an optimal manner will be taught. The effective scheduling of labour force and machines will be demonstrated. Finally, current state-of-the art production planning models will be covered.

Strategic Logistics: Most problems arising in the fields of logistics and supply chain management have sufficient complexity and detail that they require the use of sophisticated modelling techniques. This unit looks at two of the most commonly used methodologies for modelling and solving logistics problems: simulation and heuristic techniques. In both cases a computer package is used to assist solution. The techniques will be demonstrated with a range of case studies drawn from the field of logistics including transportation, supply chain configuration and management, warehouse design and layout, container port layout, production planning, and vehicle routing.

Project (Masters Logistics): This unit allows students to conduct research into a larger scale or challenging problem arising from the field of logistics. The project may be practical or theoretical and may arise either from the supervisor's research interests or from the students desire to study a particular topic or situation. Typical areas of logistics in which the project will be conducted include (but are not limited to) transportation, supply chain configuration and management, warehouse design and layout, container port layout, production planning, green logistics, facility location and vehicle routing.

Stage 2 of this pathway is taught in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Portsmouth, which together with the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG), gained the joint highest 3*+4* grade in the UK in the RAE 2008 for research in Applied Mathematics.

The latest Destination of Leavers from Higher Education data shows that the University of Portsmouth is top in the UK for the number of Mathematics graduates going into employment or further study. Latest statistics show that:

Stage 1		Stage 2		Degree awards from the University of Portsmouth
Pre-Master's		Master's Degree
Location: ICP at the University of Portsmouth Intakes: June Duration: 1 semester Modules Research Methods for Postgraduate Study Principles of Logistics and Supply Chain Management Mini-Dissertation Interactive Learning Skills and Communication for Postgraduate Study Course fee: £5,500		Location: Department of Mathematics, University of Portsmouth Course fee: £10,500		Successful completion of this pathway will lead to the following degree award at the University of Portsmouth: MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management

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