Lecture

Supply Chain & Logistics: Challenges & Future Issues

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In courses (2)

MGT-427: Project management and risk analysis

Ce cours a pour objectif de présenter l'approche générale du management de projet en intégrant la gestion du risque dans toutes les étapes du projet. ...

MGT-426: Logistics and demand analysis

La logistique, fonction transversale par excellence, intègre toutes les dimensions des processus industriels à ajout de valeur, de l'approvisionnement à la distribution aux clients et au-delà en intégrant le développement durable. Un focus particulier sera ...

Description

This lecture covers the definition of supply chain and logistics, the value network, and the challenges faced in current and future supply chain management. It discusses the importance of integrating all flows and resources to add value, emphasizing sustainability, recycling, and product value addition. The lecture also explores the concept of coopetition, differentiation through customer service, and the resilience and durability required in supply chain management.

Instructor

Philippe Wieser

Philippe Wieser obtained his diploma of engineer in mechanics at the EPFL in 1977 and he received his PhD in 1981. After a few years working in a engineering consulting company, he joined the EPFL as lecturer. His fields of research and teaching deal with logistics, supply chain management, information systems and integrated logistics, health supply chain and project management. Since May 2000, Philippe Wieser is the executive director of IML: International Institute for the Management of Logistics (EPFL - Lausanne and ENPC - Paris). In 2008 he was appointed Professeur titulaire at EPFL. Philippe Wieser teaches in EPFL-Lausanne (Minor, Master and Executive Master MSL), ENPC-Paris (Executive Master) and other European and African Universities. He is author or co-author of more than ninety publications and international conferences.

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Value chain

A value chain is a progression of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service) to the end customer. The concept comes through business management and was first described by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. The idea of the value chain is based on the process view of organizations, the idea of seeing a manufacturing (or service) organization as a system, made up of subsystems each with inputs, transformation processes and outputs.

Supply chain management

In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) deals with a system of procurement (purchasing raw materials/components), operations management (ensuring the production of high-quality products at high speed with good flexibility and low production cost), logistics and marketing channels, so that the raw materials can be converted into a finished product and delivered to the end customer.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long time. Specific definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Experts often describe sustainability as having three dimensions (or pillars): environmental, economic, and social, and many publications emphasize the environmental dimension. In everyday use, sustainability often focuses on countering major environmental problems, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, loss of ecosystem services, land degradation, and air and water pollution.

Recycling

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions. It can also prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reducing energy use, air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling).

Weak and strong sustainability

Although related, sustainable development and sustainability are two different concepts. Weak sustainability is an idea within environmental economics which states that 'human capital' can substitute 'natural capital'. It is based upon the work of Nobel laureate Robert Solow, and John Hartwick. Contrary to weak sustainability, strong sustainability assumes that 'human capital' and 'natural capital' are complementary, but not interchangeable. This idea received more political attention as sustainable development discussions evolved in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

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