Introduction
Postgraduate Pathway in Logistics and Supply Chain Management
The postgraduate pathway is for students who do not meet the traditional entry requirements for Stage 2 (Master's Degree) or who would benefit from additional academic preparation. Students can begin their postgraduate pathway at ICP and graduate from the University of Portsmouth with a world-class qualification.
Pathways at the University of Portsmouth
Stage 1: Pre-Master's
Location
ICP at the University of Portsmouth.
Modules
Interactive Learning Skills and Communication for Postgraduate Study
Mini-dissertation
Research Methods for Postgraduate Study
Principles of Business and Management
Stage 2: Master's Degree
Location
Portsmouth Business School, University of Portsmouth.
Degree awards from the University of Portsmouth
MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management
MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Logistics and supply chain management brings together the business skills to manage the activities and flows of information between suppliers, manufacturers, logistics service providers, retailers and consumers.
Logistics analysis is critical to success in both the manufacturing and service industries. Competitive advantage will increasingly come from the supplier's ability to rapidly respond to changing customer needs, for which effective logistics are of prime importance.
This pathway focuses on the integration of analytical techniques for optimisation with the decision issues and technology relating to logistics and supply chain management. It covers a range of modules that combine lectures, tutorials, practical sessions to solve case studies using the software.
It aims to:
Provide an understanding of logistics and supply chain management.
Provides an understanding of the available methods to model and solve optimisation and scheduling problems in logistics and supply chain management.
Provide implementation skills to solve logistics and supply chain management problems using optimisation and simulation software.
Develop intellectual, analytical, and problem-solving skills that will help develop professional and interpersonal abilities.
Stage 2 (Master's Degree) Course content
Supply Chain Management: This unit gives students advanced skills to deal with problems of supply chain management across different products, locations, and companies. The types of problems studied in this course are encountered in the industry (e.g. retail, discrete or continuous production, logistics service providers) as well as in service organisations (e.g. banks, hospitals, law firms). Managers dealing with such problems are known under various titles, including production, operations, supply (chain), inventory, purchasing, distribution, or logistics managers. Supply chain management is a philosophy, the implementation process, and the control of this process through which different entities within a supply chain aim to streamline their activities to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of meeting final customer requirements. A variety of different techniques will be investigated, ranging from conceptual frameworks, analytical approaches, to computer-based models.
Logistics Modelling: Most problems arising in the fields of logistics and supply chain management have sufficient complexity and detail that they require the use of sophisticated modelling techniques. This unit looks at two of the most commonly used methodologies for modelling and solving logistics problems: simulation and heuristic techniques. In both cases, a computer package is used to assist solution. The techniques will be demonstrated with a range of case studies drawn from the field of logistics including transportation, supply chain configuration and management, warehouse design and layout, container port layout, production planning, and vehicle routing.
Operations Management: This unit teaches techniques from the field of operations management that are relevant to the wider field of logistics. The commonly used technique of linear and integer programming will be taught using Microsoft Excel-based methods for solution. Case studies relating production planning, transportation, logistics planning, and supply chain configuration will be given. Methods for location facilities such as factories, distribution centres, cross-docking centres, and retail outlets in an optimal manner will be taught. The effective scheduling of labour force and machines will be demonstrated. Finally, the current state-of-the-art production planning models will be covered.
Strategic Logistics: Most problems arising in the fields of logistics and supply chain management have sufficient complexity and detail that they require the use of sophisticated modelling techniques. This unit looks at two of the most commonly used methodologies for modelling and solving logistics problems: simulation and heuristic techniques. In both cases, a computer package is used to assist solution. The techniques will be demonstrated with a range of case studies drawn from the field of logistics including transportation, supply chain configuration and management, warehouse design and layout, container port layout, production planning, and vehicle routing.
Project (Masters Logistics): This unit allows students to conduct research into a larger scale or challenging problem arising from the field of logistics. The project may be practical or theoretical and may arise either from the supervisor's research interests or from the students desire to study a particular topic or situation. Typical areas of logistics in which the project will be conducted include (but are not limited to) transportation, supply chain configuration and management, warehouse design and layout, container port layout, production planning, green logistics, facility location and vehicle routing.
Stage 2 of this pathway is taught in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Portsmouth, which is ranked 9th in the UK in 2015 (The Guardian).
Why?
Stage 1 (Pre-Master's) is a one-semester (10 weeks) stage.
MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management is accredited by The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT).
