University of Wisconsin – Madison
(715) 836-2637
Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management
University of Wisconsin-Madison
School of Business
975 University Avenue
5191 Grainger Hall
Madison, WI 53706-1323
608-262-1941
www.wisc.edu/grainger
Course Descriptions:
MBA Supply Chain Management
Foundation Courses
Financial Accounting
Principles, concepts, and procedures of financial accounting
essential to the proper preparation, understanding, and interpretation
of accounting information.
Managerial Accounting
Interpretation and use of accounting data for management planning,
decision making, and control. Consideration of cost-volume-profit
relationships, relevant costs, variable (direct) costing, activity-based
costing, transfer pricing, and performance evaluation of segments
of the firm.
Introduction to Financial Management
Introduction to financial management of firms and investment decision
making; both theory and practice are emphasized. Topics covered
include the financial environment and securities markets, financial
statements and analysis, working capital management and capital
budgeting, cost of capital, dividend policy, asset valuation,
investments, decision making under uncertainty, and selected topics
such as mergers, options, futures.
Motivational Effectiveness
Examines components that comprise teams, highlights key factors
that influence team effectiveness, develops skills in diagnosing
opportunities and threats that face teams, and enhances teamwork
expertise.
Leadership Effectiveness
Examines major approaches to leadership and identifies characteristics,
behaviors, and skills associated with successful leadership. Identifies
leader roles in managing organizational culture, effectively exerting
social influence, empowering subordinates, and implementing major
change.
Marketing Management
The institutional, behavioral, and functional foundations of marketing,
and the management of the marketing mix.
Operations Management
Management of the operations function in manufacturing and service
organizations. Emphasizes the coordination of resources to improve
cost, quality, and customer service. Topics include materials,
capacity, and project management, operations strategy, forecasting,
and process design.
Managerial Economics
Develops an economic model of the firm and market, addressing
topics of supply and demand, marginal analysis, economic value
and cost, elasticity, pricing, incentives, and competition. Objective
is to teach how economic logic can provide practical insights
into business decision making.
Advanced Major Courses
Business Strategy
Using cases analysis we will consider the different elements of
"strategy," those elements that help a firm develop
an advantage over competitors.
Managerial Communication
Focuses on strategic aspects of communication goals for managers
and practice in skills needed to carry out writing and speaking
objectives.
Advanced Statistical Methods
Topics in regression; analysis of variance; multiple regression
and correlation; univariate auto-regressive and moving average
time series models.
Introduction to Quality and Productivity Improvement
Introduction to the philosophy, methods, technology, and systems
that lead to the continuous improvement of all products, services,
and processes. Quality control, statistical methods, and process
control, quality assurance, quality improvement, project teams,
total quality management.
Strategic Management of Innovation and Technology
Addresses competitive and cooperative technology strategies for
firm survival and prosperity in the context of international technological
evolution. Emphasizes management’s role in organizational
learning, including the creation and deployment of firm-level
knowledge and competencies.
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Focuses on the ethical and social responsibilities managers and
business organizations have regarding owners, managers, non-management,
employees, the local community, government, the natural environment
and other important stakeholders. Further, it examines the nature
of business behavior within, and its effects on, these environments
of business.
Managing the Legal Environment
Legal implications for business managers of selected areas of
the law including negligence, contract, intellectual property,
officer/director liability, financing the business enterprise,
and employment and trade regulation; introduction to the legal
process, including alternative dispute resolution systems.
Corporate Strategy
Seminar: Supply Chain Management
Focuses on strategic issues in distribution management. Students
learn skills in the management of goods, services, and information
among all links in the supply chain.
Logistics Strategies
Planning and design of integrated logistics systems; managing
inter-functional and inter-firm relationships; international logistics;
multiple facility network design; analysis of inventory and transportation
routing and scheduling problems. Use of cases and computer applications.
Global Manufacturing & Logistics
A course in the design and operation of a global manufacturing
and distribution system. Course objectives include knowing what
issues need to be addressed when designing a multiple location
production and distribution system; knowing the impact of the
assumptions, the choice of performance measures, the presence
of constraints, the nature of information infrastructure on the
development of operational strategy for managing production and
distribution systems; knowing how to perform and interpret a marketing
analysis and its implications for operations; and knowing how
to prepare, analyze, and justify a capital budget proposal.
Operations Research I
Linear and nonlinear programming with emphasis on applications;
the transportation problem parametric programming, sensitivity
analysis, dynamic programming.
Marketing Research
An overview of the marketing research process from a methodological
perspective. Topics: Research design, data collection procedures,
sampling, and data analysis.
-or-
Seminar in Information Systems: e-Business
Focuses on developing skills for information technology senior
management, including the role of IT in strategic business planning,
understanding the new Internet/e-business economy, understanding
the technical infrastructure required, and exploring specific
industries as case studies for the role of IT in strategy.
Marketing Channels
Marketing channels analyzed as social, economic, and political
systems. Strong emphasis on understanding and dissecting behavioral
dimensions of channel relations, roles of channel members, use
of power, conflicts that arise among them, and their communication
networks.
Data Analysis for Managers
Emphasizes the use of statistics as a tool for the analysis and
interpretation of data. Objective is to understand how to collect
and analyze data effectively and efficiently and how to draw appropriate
conclusions from data.
Procurement and Supply Management
Enhance awareness of the new strategic roles of supply management
within a firm’s comprehensive supply chain network, including
perspectives regarding the implications of Internet-based and
Web-enabled systems in procurement strategies and tactics across
disparate enterprises.
Major Electives
Advanced Management Control and Cost Accounting
Development and analysis of accounting data for managerial planning,
control, decision-making and costing. Integration of information
needs for various managerial functions.
Computer-Based Data Management
Use, control, and administration of centralized and distributed
data bases. Topics include the definition, design, creation, revision,
interrogation, update, security, and integrity of data bases.
Analysis and Design of Computer-Based Systems
Analysis of business systems to identify possible need for new
or improved computer-based systems and the design of systems to
meet those needs.
Project Management
Addresses the skills needed to become a successful project manager
and project team member; addresses project initiation issues,
project implementation topics and project evaluation and termination
concerns.
Global Marketing
Application of the strategic bases of marketing in an international
setting. Considers the extension of product, price, distribution,
communications, segmentation, and research issues in a global
marketplace.
Facilities Location Models
The theory and methods of facility location. Plant and warehouse
citing, plant layout problems and location of service facilities
such as hospitals and fire stations. Cases of actual applications.
Production Planning and Control
The role of materials and capacity planning and control in business
operations. Manufacturing resource planning systems: aggregate
planning, material requirements planning, capacity planning, operations
scheduling. Procedures for cellular manufacturing systems. Costing
issues in modern planning and control systems.
Operations Research II
Stochastic processes; Markov processes; queuing theory; applications
to production and inventory problems.
Service Operations Management
Application of operations management principles to the analysis
of service-delivery systems in profit and nonprofit organizations.
Topics include designing service-delivery systems, location and
layout, operations planning and control, yield management, technology
and information systems, and service quality management.
International Operations: Problems and Administration
Organizations and strategies of international and multinational
firms. Initiating international operations, joint venture problems,
relationships with state enterprises, licensing methods, defenses
against adverse government policies (including confiscation),
and international business policies and tactics.
Managing Technological Change in Manufacturing Systems
Overview of computerized manufacturing technologies and their
managerial implications. Manufacturing systems. Definitions and
design aspects. Manufacturing planning and control. CAD/CAM, flexible
automation. group technology, and other technologies. Integration
aspects. Manufacturing strategies. Performance measures. Adoption
considerations. Human aspects and implementation issues. International
outlook.
Carrier Management Principles
Examines important management problems and issues which are unique
to transportation carriers but common among its various modes.