Course Description

Meeting demand in a timely and cost-effective manner is important both in public and private supply chains, and heavily depend on the design and operation of these supply chains. Demand is affected by ongoing factors such as local economy, infrastructure, and geographic location, as well as unexpected events such as natural or man-made disasters or other large-scale disruptions. Designing and operating responsive supply chains requires the consideration of uncertainty in timing, scope, scale, and understanding of various topics such as forecasting, distribution network design, and inventory management. This course will examine methods and models for making supply chain design and operational decisions and explore the significant value that is obtained through informed decision-making in advance of an unpredictable event or long-term strategy for meeting the need of customers and beneficiaries.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for representatives from governmental or non-governmental organizations, private corporations, military, and foundations, including but not limited to senior executives overseeing administrative and operational functions of an organization, logistics and supply chain managers, program managers, directors of field operations, directors of emergency/disaster preparedness and response, and public health professionals.

How You Will Benefit

  • Provide immediate impact to your organization through learnings gained from applied and real-world case studies.
  • Learn to bring NGOs, businesses, or government entities together to enhance collaboration, cooperation, and communication.
  • Discover current trends and procedures to help organizations and team members get and stay ahead of the curve.
  • Build a critical knowledge base to make tactical decisions around inventory, routing, and distribution.
  • Deliver best practices to measure and evaluate the efficiency, impact, and outcomes of focused initiatives or ongoing logistics and supply chain operations.
  • Transform the health and humanitarian sectors with increased capacity to participate in planning and strategic decision-making for effective supply-chain management.

What You Will Learn

  • Network modeling approaches
  • Forecasting techniques
  • Strategies for making decisions under uncertainty
  • Other data-driven analytical approaches
Pre-Course Activities (2.5 hrs) - Online via GTPE platform
Classroom Activities (2 days) - Georgia Tech Global Learning Center

NOTE: Pre-course activities will conducted online using the CANVAS online learning management system. Access instructions will be provided to registrants when details become available.

Pre-Course Activities - Conducted online via GTPE online platform
  • Distribution Network Design – 2 hours
  • Forecasting – 1.5 hours

Course Materials

Provided

  • Participants receive readings, case studies, spreadsheet files, and lecture slides, and will be given access to the pre-course web-based activities.

Recommended

  • Students need a laptop with Microsoft Excel and the ability to connect to a high-speed internet connection (internet access is provided for onsite portions of course).

Course Prerequisites

For those interested in earning the Health and Humanitarian Supply Chain Management Certificate, this course is the first of the three-course certificate program. To earn the certificate, participants must register and complete the following courses within three years:

  1. Responsive Supply Chain Design and Operations
  2. Inventory Management and Resource Allocation in Supply Chains
  3. Systems Operations and Strategic Interactions in Supply Chains

The Georgia Tech Health and Humanitarian Logistics Professional Certificate Program is an executive education program designed for practitioners in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government, industry, and the military who are active participants in health and humanitarian sectors. The courses are developed for practitioners seeking to build skills to improve decision making in preparedness, response operations planning, and system design. Courses include many interactive components, such as case studies and games, which help professionals in the humanitarian world to link the challenges and decision-making tradeoffs they face in practice with the systematic approaches, tools, and techniques presented.