Date: July 17-18, 2006 | Tuition: $1,250 | Continuing Education Units (CEUs): 1.0

Registration is on Monday morning from 8:30 - 9:00 am.
Class runs 9:00 am - 5:00 pm on Monday and 8:30 am - 4:00 pm on Tuesday.
There will be a reception on Monday evening at 6:30 pm.

Overview

A company's goals for inventory management will vary depending on the time frame of inventory and supply chain decision making. For strategic planning, the company seeks to identify and implement inventory deployment plans that most effectively support its long term goals for expanding, contracting or otherwise re-designing its supply chain. For tactical planning, the company seeks to identify and implement aggregate inventory plans that support net revenue maximization from sales of the company's products over the coming months. For operational planning, the company seeks to design and implement inventory control policies for individual products that minimize inventory costs while maintaining acceptable levels of customer service. In this course, modeling concepts and details will be presented for managing inventories as part of holistic supply chain optimization at all levels of planning. Cases describing successful applications in retailing, consumer products, and manufacturing companies will also be discussed.

Learning Objectives

• Grasp the fundamentals of inventory theory.
• Comprehend the roles of simulation and optimization models in determining inventory decisions that are integrated with other strategic supply chain design decisions.
• Understand the application of holistic supply chain optimization models in determining effective production/distribution/inventory plans over tactical planning horizons of several months.
• Examine guidelines for creating and using models including: model selection; data collection, preparation, and validation; and scenario planning.
• Gain knowledge of software systems for inventory simulations and supply chain network optimization.
• Acquire insights from case studies where inventory and supply chain optimization models were successfully applied.

Who Should Attend

This program is intended for inventory and supply chain managers and analysts responsible for acquiring or developing, and applying data-driven models to improve decision-making. It is also intended for consultants who participate in supply chain studies, and academics who teach supply chain subjects to students in management and engineering. Participants will not need advanced analytical skills to fully absorb material presented in the program.

Program Materials

At the start of the program, participants will be given a copy of the recently published second edition of Professor Shapiro€™s, Modeling the Supply Chain, plus other recently published and unpublished papers.

Outline of the Program

The two-day program will consist of four lectures per day. The first lecture will be devoted to an overview of the course material. Follow-on lectures will cover inventory and supply chain modeling fundamentals, case studies, and software demonstrations.

The program organizers will host an informal cocktail party on Monday evening, July 17, at the MIT Faculty Club.

Topics Covered

• Review of classical inventory planning models
• Overview of supply chain network optimization models
• Integration of inventory deployment decisions in strategic supply chain design studies
• Impact of RFID on inventory management
• Optimizing multi-echelon distribution networks
• Work-in-process inventory planning for manufacturing companies
• Dynamic sourcing of consumer products
• Vendor-managed inventory systems
• Inventory planning for reverse logistics companies
• Case study: Distribution network expansion in a retailing company
• Case Study: Seasonal planning in a food products company

Instructors

This two-day course will be presented by Jeremy F. Shapiro, Professor of Operations Research and Management, Emeritus, at the Sloan School, MIT. He will be assisted by guest lecturers with expertise in inventory and supply chain management.