Strategic Production Management

Course description The course discusses strategic decision problems that arise in production and logistics. The focus of the course is on the determination of production capacities, the determination of optimal facility locations and the design of supply chains. As decision problems in these areas are often associated with high investments, supporting the investment decisions with planning models may improve the cost position of the company significantly. The course discusses quantitative planning models that support the decision problems mentioned above. After participating in this course, students should be able to model planning problems that arise in production and logistics systems and to derive decision support for these problems. In addition, students should be able to classify all planning problems covered in the course within a general business context. Outline 1. Production strategies 2. Aggregated production planning 2.1 Spreadsheet Modelling: Solving an aggregated production planning problem using Microsoft Excel 3. Strategic network design 3.1 Introduction and problem 3.2 Basic facility location models 3.3 Planning logistics and distribution structures 3.4 The design of global value networks: An outlook 4. Facility planning 4.1 Planning of facility layouts 4.2 Management of warehouses 4.3 Case study on the optimization of order picking processes 5. Considering human factors aspects in production management Optional: 6. Learning curves and their applications 6.1 Basics and case example 6.2 Management of ramp-ups 6.3 Estimation of product life cycles 7. The make-or-buy decision 7.1 Basics 7.2 Short-term make-or-buy decisions 7.3 Long-term make-or-buy decisions 8. Strategic positioning of safety stocks in supply chains