Logistics and supply chain management functions can account for as much as half of the total costs of running a business. The success of a firm's logistic and supply chain management not only impacts on the profitability of a firm but also has a significant and growing impact on customer experience and satisfaction. Logistics and supply chain management plays a major role in implementing organisational strategy and in many industries has sole responsibility for managing customer service. An understanding of the role of this activity within an organisation and how improving logistics and supply chains can assist business managers to better respond to market opportunities is essential for business students. Students undertaking this unit are given a solid grounding in the language, concepts, techniques and principles that underlie the field of logistics and supply chain management, and how knowledge of these concepts contributes towards a strategically effective and operationally efficient organisation or network of organisations.

Supply chain management as well as logistics, transport and infrastructure management relies on the ability to make effective decisions based on the information provided by careful analysis of data. Students undertaking this unit will develop a strong understanding of the basic techniques underpinning quantitative analysis and will develop highly marketable skills in spreadsheet modelling and the communication and presentation of data to support management decision making. This unit emphasises the practical aspects of quantitative analysis with computer based workshops. Students are guided through the basic theories used in decision making but emphasis is placed on how the theories are applied in practice, drawing on real world experience in quantitative analysis. The unit covers demand forecasting, spreadsheet modelling, optimisation of production and transportation using linear programming, simulation and basic statistics and linear regression techniques.

Successful supply chain management relies upon informed decision making. This unit explores a range of important decisions, and equips students with a toolkit of models and analytical methods that can assist in making informed decisions. The first set of decisions concern supply chain design and strategy, and includes network design and facility location. These decisions provide structure to the supply chain, set the boundaries within which planning decisions will be made, and impact on supply chain performance over the long term. In contrast, planning decisions provide value over the medium and short term. Here, this unit will cover aggregate planning, sales and operations planning, and inventory control. Special attention will be placed on how to handle uncertainty and risk within the supply chain.

Procurement practitioners have to be able to generate insights from large volumes of transactional, aggregate, structured and unstructured data resulting from growing stakeholder needs, the globalisation of supply markets, evolving regulatory environments and relevant technological changes. This unit explores challenges in procurement practice using real procurement spend data from organisations with different strategic priorities. Students gain an appreciation of spend analysis techniques involving large datasets and an understanding of how the insights are applied in the context of category strategies, sourcing risk management, negotiations and ethical sourcing. The usefulness of large volumes of both structured and unstructured data for input to procurement strategy is explored. The unit includes an industry-led workshop and certificate component and is suitable for both early career procurement professionals as well as students interested in the application of data analytics in procurement.

Large scale, sudden onset disasters strike with little or no warning. In their wake they leave shattered infrastructure, collapsed services and traumatised populations, while the number of dead, injured and homeless often reaches staggering proportions. Humanitarian aid organisations, such as the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders or Oxfam, to name just a few, are usually amongst the first responders, but depend on extremely agile supply chains to support their worldwide operations. Successful disaster relief missions are characterised by the ability of professionals to cope with time pressure, high uncertainty and unusual restrictions. This unit is designed as an introduction to the coordination and management of humanitarian aid and emergency response logistics. Case studies of real events, such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake provide the framework for analysis and research, while discussion of operational factors, simulations, workshops and group exercises offer students an interactive learning environment.

Production and operations management designs, operates, and improves the processes and systems through which products are made and delivered. Firms can improve their productivity and gain competitive advantage through effective and innovative production and operations management. This unit offers a thorough examination of various production and operations management concepts from a supply chain perspective. The key teaching topics include operations planning hierarchy, resource management, capacity planning, quality management, retail operations, sustainable/green operations, and reverse logistics. Students learn about the successful production and operations management practices that have helped organisations improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their supply chains and create competitive advantage.

This unit provides students with an understanding of the management of international freight, including express, freight forwarding, rail, trucking, air freight and ocean shipping. The unit covers underlying supply chain drivers of international trade flows and the demand for capacity in different freight transport modes, as well as industry structure, institutional environment (customs, etc.) and market access. Building on this background the unit highlights the implications for profitable international logistics operations. The unit focuses on corporate strategies around fleet and network planning as well as revenue and cost management. The material covered in the unit takes into account recent developments in global and regional economic activity and discusses implications for the various sectors of the air, sea and intermodal freight businesses. This unit involves case studies and industry presentations, and analysis from the perspectives of shippers, carriers, end customers, regulatory bodies and investors.

The world is increasingly filled with systems, devices and sensors collecting large amounts of data on a continual basis. Most of these data are associated with locations that represent everything from the movement of individuals travelling between activities to the flow of goods or transactions along a supply chain and from the location of companies to those of their current and future customers. Taking this spatial context into account transforms analyses, problem solving and provides a powerful method of visualising the world. This is the essence of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and this unit. This unit starts by introducing students to the 'building blocks' of GIS systems, including data structures, relational databases, spatial queries and analysis. The focus then moves on to sources of spatial data including Global Positioning System (GPS), operational systems such as smartcard ticketing and transaction data along with web-based sources highlighting both the potential and challenges associated with integrating each data source within a GIS environment. The unit is hands-on involving learning how to use the latest GIS software to analyse several problems of interest using real 'big data' sources and to communicate the results in a powerful and effective way. These include identifying potential demand for new services or infrastructure, creating a delivery and scheduling plan for a delivery firm or examining the behaviour of travellers or consumers over time and locations. This unit is aimed at students interested in the spatial impact of decision-making and on the potential for using large spatial datasets for in-depth multi-faceted analytics.