Advanced Supply Chain Systems Planning and Network Design
Master strategic supply chain design with hands-on tools and real-world applications. Learn to effectively balance cost, service, and sustainability, equipping yourself with the skills needed for impactful decision-making in today’s complex business environment.
Course Information
Certificate Track
Learn for Free
About this Course
Supply Chain Systems Planning and Network Design are essential sources of competitive advantage for organizations. They focus on strategic decisions such as defining the configuration of production and distribution facilities, deciding where to source, and determining how to best serve customers.
Every choice impacts customer satisfaction, operational costs, and environmental performance, making supply chain design essential for long-term success. To address these challenges, this online course from the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL) will equip you with practical tools and experience using supply chain design models, enabling you to make informed, balanced decisions.
Focusing on real-world applications, the course begins with foundational network models, such as transportation, transshipment, and facility location problems. As you progress, you will delve into more complex networks that involve multiple tiers of facilities and multimodal transportation. Additionally, the course will teach you how to integrate revenue and inventory considerations into supply chain design models, and develop the analytical skills needed to balance competing objectives effectively.
To enhance learning, the course combines video lectures with practical Python exercises, guiding you through the implementation of quantitative models. No prior knowledge of Python is required , as the course provides a comprehensive introduction to all necessary concepts. You will also have the opportunity to explore interactive visualization tools developed by the MIT CTL Computational and Visual Education (CAVE) Lab, allowing you to gain hands-on experience that bridges theoretical knowledge with real-world applications. This approach, aligned with MIT’s "learning by doing" philosophy, ensures that you not only grasp the concepts but can also apply them in practice.
What you'll learn
- Understand the key challenges in contemporary supply chain management and their impact on Supply Chain Systems Planning and Network Design
- Identify the most common decisions involved in Supply Chain Systems Planning and Network Design, along with the main trade-offs.
- Learn about a range of analytical tools and techniques used to support decision-making in Supply Chain Systems Planning and Network Design, and know when to apply them.
- Develop the ability to translate real-life business decision-making problems into formal Supply Chain Network Design mathematical models.
- Apply advances Supply Chain Network Design models to case studies, interpret the results, and provide actionable recommendations.
Prerequisites
Basic concepts of Supply Chain Management
Meet your instructors
Matthias Winkenbach
Principal Research Scientist
Dr. Matthias Winkenbach is a Principal Research Scientist at MIT and the Director of Research at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, where he shapes the center’s strategic agenda for supply chain and logistics innovation. He also leads the MIT Computational Analytics, Visualization, and Education (CAVE) Lab, which enhances the accessibility of advanced supply chain analytics through interactive visualization, and the MIT Intelligent Logistics Systems Lab, which focuses on applying operations research and machine learning to innovative logistics systems. His work centers on the strategic design and operation of intelligent logistics systems, blending cutting-edge research with practical industry applications.
