Imagine trucks, trains, ships, and planes all carrying materials around the world. They deliver crates, boxes, and shipping containers with goods for small businesses and huge corporations, as well as community agencies, schools, and families. Keeping track of all those items is no small task! In this course, you will learn about the planning and logistics needed to manage transportation and distribution. You will explore requirements and risks, oversight of facilities and inventory, warehouse management, and laws pertinent to transportation, logistics, and distribution. In addition, you will study supply chain synchronicity, strategy, costs, and efficiencies. This knowledge is invaluable and will support you as you pursue a supply chain career.

As large as the world is, you still manage to stay connected—more so now than ever. Apart from the internet and advanced communication technology, as a consumer or worker in the global supply chain, you are part of a living and breathing ecosystem. And this interconnected system relies on communication, planning, and sustainability. In this course, you will study concepts of supply chain management and risk management. You will explore relationships, distribution, logistics, sourcing, and transportation. You will discover how the supply chain affects consumers. And you will look at the role of the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process in operations and supply chain management. As you finish this course, you will have a strong understanding of the global supply chain. And you will see how it helps link the world together.

Students without a bachelor's degree will take Managing Operations. Students with a bachelor’s degree will take Operations Management.

Managing Operations

Before you start any project or task, you need a plan. You must know where to start, what the steps are, and what completion looks like. The same requirement is true for any business or organization. Without solid systems and processes, companies can lose sight of their goals and struggle to reach them.

In this course, you will be introduced to operations management concepts. You will study management systems and processes. Then, you will determine how analyzing these systems and processes can help improve them. Such an approach can result in a continuous increase in operating efficiency throughout the organization. You will also explore ethical and sustainable operations management strategies. This knowledge can help you excel in any professional role.

Consider for a moment the rate at which technology is advancing through the 21st century. New technological innovations and software impact everything from your daily life to the global supply chain. And there are ways in which these advances can impact the supply chain both positively and negatively.

Understanding supply chain and operations issues, as well as knowing how to use data to create solutions, has never been more important. In this course, you will explore modern issues in supply chain management. You will look at how disruptions transform operations and the supply chain. And you will learn how to use qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate solutions.

Note: This course builds on the supply chain landscape and concepts introduced in prior courses