session 1 scm

⭐ = something I would study for the quiz/exam.

Introduction Session — Slide-by-Slide Notes

Slide 1 — SCM 3301: Supply Chain Management Fundamentals

Main idea

Supply chain management is the “doing” or action part of a business.

It is how a company turns an idea into a real product or service by:

  • Planning it

  • Getting materials

  • Making it

  • Delivering it to customers

Professor’s Starbucks example

Starbucks’s supply chain follows the coffee bean from:

Planting the bean → roasting/packaging → delivering it → brewing the customer’s coffee

Starbucks must manage more than coffee beans. It also needs:

  • Cups and lids

  • Napkins

  • Milk and food

  • Machines

  • Employees

  • Transportation

  • Electricity and water

  • Cleaning supplies

The price customers pay for one coffee must cover costs throughout the entire supply chain, including farmers, transportation, equipment, workers, and suppliers.

⭐ Know from the Starbucks video:

  • Starbucks uses Plan, Source, Make, and Deliver.

  • Daily deliveries and different temperature requirements make its supply chain complex.

  • Starbucks tries to purchase and distribute products ethically and environmentally responsibly.

  • Every company uses SCM because every company buys products or services to operate.

Slide 2 — Chapter Objectives

By the end of the introduction, you should be able to:

  1. Define supply chain and supply chain management.

  2. Explain why SCM is important for businesses.

  3. Understand the SCOR Model.

  4. Understand important supply-chain vocabulary.

  5. Understand the course rules and responsibilities.

What the professor adds

The chapter objectives are the main ideas you should study.

The professor said there will probably be questions connected to each chapter objective.

⭐ Do not rely only on the PowerPoint. Testable information can come from:

  • The slides

  • What the professor says

  • Videos placed inside the lecture

  • Textbook material listed on the exam review

That is why the Starbucks video matters even though its information is not fully written on a slide.

Slide 3 — What Is Supply Chain Management?

Supply Chain

A network of manufacturers and service providers working together to create products or services for the final customer.

The companies are connected by:

  • Physical flows: Products and materials moving

  • Information flows: Orders, forecasts, and inventory information

  • Monetary flows: Money and payments

Supply Chain Management

The active management of supply-chain activities and relationships to:

  • Maximize customer value

  • Create a sustainable competitive advantage

Sustainable competitive advantage: An advantage over competitors that a company can maintain for a long time.

Easy difference

  • Supply chain: The network itself

  • Supply chain management: Managing the network

Why study SCM?

  • Every organization must make a product or provide a service that someone values.

  • Most companies are part of a larger supply chain.

  • Companies must manage their operations and supply chains to survive and succeed.

What the professor adds

SCM manages activities:

  • Inside the company

  • Between the company and outside companies

  • Necessary to create and deliver products or services

  • Responsible for a large portion of the company’s costs

The goal is to make the supply chain:

Better, faster, and cheaper

  • Better: Higher quality

  • Faster: Quicker production and delivery

  • Cheaper: Lower cost

⭐ SCM is not only about what one company does. It manages the relationships and activities across the entire network.

Slide 4 — Factors Changing the Way Business Is Managed

Supply chains constantly change because the business world changes.

Factors listed on the slide

  1. Global economy: Companies buy and sell worldwide.

  2. Global production: Products may be made across several countries.

  3. Improving technology: Technology makes planning and communication faster.

  4. Changing customer preferences: Customers quickly want different things.

  5. Shorter product life cycles: Products become outdated faster.

  6. Political uncertainty: Wars, laws, and government changes can disrupt business.

  7. Service relationships: Companies depend more on outside service providers.

  8. Increasing energy costs: Transportation and production become more expensive.

  9. Declining natural resources: Some materials are becoming limited.

  10. Environmental awareness: Companies are pressured to operate sustainably.

  11. Corporate ethics: Customers care about whether companies act responsibly.

What the professor adds

SCM moves so quickly that textbooks sometimes cannot keep up with new practices.

Examples of changes include:

  • Artificial intelligence

  • Blockchain

  • Tesla experimenting with new production methods

  • Online shopping replacing some physical-store shopping

Companies such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Lowe’s now use stores as both:

  • Places where customers shop

  • Small warehouses that ship online orders

Because stores are closer to customers, delivery can be faster and cheaper.

⭐ The big lesson: Supply chains must remain flexible and react quickly to technology, customer needs, and market changes.

Textbook Section 1.2 connection

The textbook groups important trends into three larger ideas:

  • Agility: Quickly changing plans when demand or supply changes

  • Information technology: Using technology to improve visibility and decisions

  • People: Having talented workers and strong relationships with suppliers/customers

Slide 5 — Benefits of Studying SCM

Superior companies usually develop superior supply chains.

Benefits of good SCM

  • Lower purchasing costs

  • Lower inventory costs

  • Better product and service quality

  • Better customer service

  • Faster delivery

  • Better production methods

  • Faster reaction to market changes

  • More reliability and consistency

  • Increased customer demand

  • Higher organizational profits

Easy organization

Goal

Examples

Better

Quality, reliability, customer service

Faster

Delivery and response to market changes

Cheaper

Purchasing, inventory, and production costs

What the professor adds

Companies that deliver products better, faster, and cheaper can become world-class competitors.

Every business major will interact with SCM employees:

  • Accounting

  • Finance

  • Marketing

  • Sales

  • Management

You must understand the “language” of SCM so you can:

  • Communicate

  • Collaborate

  • Coordinate

  • Understand supply-chain decisions

For accounting, SCM affects inventory costs, purchasing costs, product costs, and company profit.

⭐ You do not need to be an SCM major for SCM knowledge to matter.

Slide 6 — What Is Operations Management?

Definition

Operations management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling activities that transform inputs into finished goods or services.

Basic process

Inputs → Transformation process → Outputs

Examples of inputs:

  • Materials

  • Employees

  • Equipment

  • Information

  • Services

Outputs can be:

  • A physical product

  • A completed service

Coffee example

Beans + workers + machines → brewing → finished coffee

What the professor adds

Companies originally focused mostly on improving their own operations.

However, they eventually realized:

  • The cost of their inputs includes costs from earlier suppliers.

  • Product quality depends on suppliers, not only the focal company.

  • Delivery performance depends on several companies working together.

Therefore, companies began managing the entire supply-chain network.

Operations Management vs. SCM

  • Operations management: Focuses mainly on transforming inputs into outputs inside one company.

  • SCM: Coordinates the entire network of suppliers, the company, and customers.

⭐ Suboptimization: Improving one company or department while making the overall supply chain worse.

The real goal is to optimize the whole supply chain, not only one company.

Slide 7 — SCOR Model Activities

SCOR: Supply Chain Operations Reference Model

It organizes SCM into five major activities.

1. Plan

Balance customer demand against available resources and communicate the plan.

Professor’s explanation:

  • This is the strategy/executive part of SCM.

  • The supply chain can support or even drive the company’s strategy.

2. Buy/Source

Find, develop, and coordinate suppliers and incoming goods/services.

A company may source:

  • Materials

  • Employees

  • Services

  • Equipment

Professor’s explanation: This is the purchasing or procurement part.

3. Make

Produce the actual product or perform the service.

This is where inputs are transformed into outputs.

4. Deliver

Store and transport the product to its destination or customer.

This includes:

  • Warehousing

  • Transportation

  • Distribution

  • Logistics

5. Return

Process defective, unwanted, or excess products and materials.

⭐ Reverse logistics: Moving returned products backward through the supply chain.

Professor’s big point

The five activities are connected. You cannot completely separate Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return because decisions in one area affect the others.

The course itself follows this general order:

Plan → Buy → Make → Ship/Deliver

Slide 8 — Supply Chain Terminology

Focal firm

The company you are currently discussing or analyzing.

The focal firm changes depending on the question’s point of view.

Upstream

Companies or activities located before the focal firm.

Usually the supplier side.

Downstream

Companies or activities located after the focal firm.

Usually the customer side.

Professor’s river example

Imagine water flowing down a mountain:

  • The water’s source is upstream.

  • The water flows downstream toward the customer.

Therefore:

  • Suppliers = upstream

  • Customers = downstream

Tiers

  • Tier 1 supplier: Directly supplies the focal firm

  • Tier 2 supplier: Directly supplies the Tier 1 supplier

  • Tier 1 customer: Buys directly from the focal firm

  • Tier 2 customer: Buys from the Tier 1 customer

Order

Position

Tier 2 supplier

Supplier’s supplier

Tier 1 supplier

Direct supplier

Focal firm

Company being studied

Tier 1 customer

Direct customer

Tier 2 customer

Customer’s customer

What the professor adds

These words are actually used throughout businesses.

  • Purchasing/procurement employees work upstream.

  • Sales employees work downstream.

  • Oil exploration would be very far upstream.

Technology now allows companies to communicate with Tier 2 and Tier 3 companies, not only their direct partners.

⭐ Remember: A Tier 2 supplier does not supply the focal firm directly.

Slide 9 — SCOR Model Diagram

This diagram expands the SCOR model across multiple businesses:

Supplier’s supplier → Supplier → Your company → Customer → Customer’s customer

Main point

Each company in the chain performs its own:

  • Plan

  • Source

  • Make

  • Deliver

  • Return

One company’s Deliver activity connects to the next company’s Source activity.

Example:

  • Your supplier delivers materials.

  • Your company sources or receives those materials.

What the professor adds

Every part must coordinate with the other parts. The focal firm should not think only about itself.

A decision made by:

  • A supplier can affect the focal firm.

  • The focal firm can affect its customers.

  • A customer can send demand information back upstream.

⭐ The supply chain extends from the supplier’s supplier to the customer’s customer.

Slide 10 — Expanded View of SCM

The simplified order is:

Tier 2 suppliers → Tier 1 suppliers → Focal firm → Tier 1 customers → Tier 2 customers

On the slide:

  • Buy: Procurement and incoming logistics

  • Make: Production

  • Deliver: Distribution and outgoing logistics

The focal firms perform manufacturing and assembly.

Tier 1 customers may be distribution centers, while Tier 2 customers may be retail customers.

What the professor adds

Real supply chains are not one straight line.

A company may have:

  • Hundreds or thousands of suppliers

  • Hundreds or thousands of customers

  • Suppliers that share customers

  • Competitors that share suppliers

This creates a complicated network.

SCM professionals must manage that complexity to:

  • Lower cost

  • Increase quality

  • Increase speed

  • Improve reliability

There may not be only one “perfect” answer. SCM professionals use:

  • Data and analytics

  • Knowledge

  • Creativity

  • Relationships

  • Experimentation

⭐ The picture looks complicated because real supply chains are complicated.

Slide 11 — Global Clothing Supply Chain

This slide shows how many steps are involved in producing and selling clothing.

Basic path

  1. Raw materials

    • Cotton, wool, silk

    • Oil and natural gas for synthetic fibers

  2. Component networks

    • Yarn

    • Fabric

    • Synthetic fibers

  3. Production networks

    • Garment factories

    • Contractors and subcontractors

    • Production in North America, Asia, Mexico, and the Caribbean

  4. Export networks

    • Brand-name apparel companies

    • Overseas buying offices

    • Trading companies

  5. Marketing networks

    • Department stores

    • Specialty stores

    • Discount chains

    • Factory outlets and online/mail-order sellers

What the professor adds

Supply chains are global because companies may:

  • Purchase materials from one country

  • Manufacture in another country

  • Sell in several different countries

SCM professionals need to understand:

  • Different cultures

  • Global suppliers

  • International transportation

  • Global sourcing

  • Communication across countries

⭐ Do not memorize every little box. Understand that one shirt may pass through many countries and companies before reaching the customer.

Slide 12 — SCM 3301 Grading

This slide contains older wording, so follow the Fall 2026 syllabus when it conflicts with the slide.

Three exams

  • Exams make up the largest portion of the grade.

  • Highest exam score counts the most.

  • Middle exam score counts next.

  • Lowest exam score counts the least.

Current weights:

  • Highest exam: approximately 31.5%

  • Middle exam: approximately 26.1%

  • Lowest exam: approximately 20.7%

⚠ The slide says “online,” but the current Fall 2026 documents say exams are taken at CASA or DART. The course is online, but the exams are in the testing center.

Six Canvas quizzes

  • Open book

  • 20 multiple-choice questions

  • Five-hour timer once opened

  • Timer cannot be paused

  • Designed to take approximately 15–30 minutes

Quizzes mainly test:

  • Math from the lecture/practice problems

  • Video profiles

  • SCM concepts

Exam-attendance quiz grades

You receive a 100 quiz grade for each exam completed properly without instructor intervention.

That creates:

  • 6 regular quizzes

  • 3 exam-attendance quiz grades

  • 9 total quiz grades

  • Top 8 count; lowest 1 is dropped

Guided Learning Modules

  • Completed through MyOMLab

  • You can work through them multiple times.

  • At least 80% completion counts as 100% in the final calculation.

  • Progress freezes at the deadline.

⚠ The slide/transcript mentions the best 11 GLMs. The current Fall 2026 syllabus says there are 12 GLMs plus one Mini Simulation, with the top 12 of 13 counting.

Other professor notes

  • Use the Excel grading calculator on Canvas.

  • Grades are not curved.

  • Grades are not rounded up.

  • SCM majors must earn at least a C+.

⭐ For policies, always follow the current syllabus/schedule instead of older slide wording.

Slide 13 — SCM Career Paths: Breadth and Depth

Breadth

SCM offers many different types of jobs, including:

  • Procurement

  • Sourcing

  • Production

  • Logistics

  • Transportation

  • Distribution

  • Planning

  • Inventory management

  • Supplier management

Depth

You can gain deeper experience in one area and eventually move into management.

What the professor adds

Most SCM graduates begin in one area:

  • Buy/Source

  • Make

  • Deliver/Logistics

However, these areas are connected, so employees can later move between them.

Some companies use job rotations where new employees spend time in several SCM roles. The professor mentioned that employees may change positions after roughly 18 months to 2½ years.

Experience across the supply chain can eventually lead to:

  • Planning positions

  • Strategy roles

  • Executive/C-suite positions

The professor gave examples of elite SCM graduates managing major programs involving:

  • Microsoft Xbox

  • Apple iPhone

  • SpaceX Starlink

⭐ Main idea: SCM has many career paths, and understanding several functions creates opportunities to move up.

Closing Video — UPS Haiti Disaster Relief

The professor finishes by explaining that SCM is not only used to make businesses profitable.

It can also:

  • Support nonprofit work

  • Organize disaster relief

  • Deliver supplies quickly

  • Help large groups of people

Video facts

  • A major earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010.

  • UPS worked with UNICEF.

  • Chip Chappell created a logistics plan in only 72 hours.

  • UPS employees volunteered to pack supplies for children.

  • The volunteers were described as a “supply chain of hope.”

The relief effort included:

  • 94,000 blankets

  • 100,000 pounds of high-energy biscuits

  • 21,000 collapsible water jugs

  • Approximately 3 million pounds of supplies

  • Boxes for 50,000 children

⭐ Main lesson: Good intentions are not enough—you need planning, workers, transportation, coordination, and logistics to get help where it is needed.