LOG904-140 Service Industry Logistics (Autumn 2022)

About the course

Although the services area was neglected for many years in terms of research and services were seen as a poor and additional feature of products, latelly the service area has gained relevance. Supply chain management practices provide competitive advantage. In the services industry similar phenomena exists. The adoption of lean and/or agile strategies in the service supply chains can lead to least expensive, faster and more flexible provision of services. The nature of the transition between these strategies in the service supply chains and the actions required to become leaner or more agile in specific processes and areas of the supply chain are key challenges service operations managers face.

During this seminar, students will become familiar with key concepts that will be fundamental to improve supply chain performance in the service context. In doing so, fundamentals of service operations management will be covered, as well as the tradition lean and agile strategies and decoupling points, but under the context of the service industry. Examples from the public sectior will be used to illustrate the topics. Students will analyse a real service case and apply the course content aiming for improvements. Support will be provided to students during the development of their assignment. At the end of the coure, students will produce an oral presentation of their assignment and discuss their proposals.

The course is connected to the following study programs

• Master of Science in Logistics
• Experience-based Master in Logistics
• Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Logistics
• Exchange programme - Master's level
• Master of Science in Sustainable Transport and Urban Mobility

The student's learning outcomes after completing the course

Knowledge: Students will gain knowledge of operations management in the context of companies in the service industry, specifically in the context of their supply chain and service processes (mapping, strategies, critical points)

Skills: Critical thinking; oral communication skills; teamwork skills

General competence: Be able to analyse a real case under the scope of service operations management

Forms of teaching and learning

The course will be composed of lectures and discussion of examples in the first 3 days. On the fourth day, tutorials will be conducted with the different groups, in class.

Examination

Form of assessment: Group assignment (report)

• Proportion: 60 %

• Duration: Due date on Thursday at 23:59

• Grouping: Group

• Grading scale: Letter (A - F)

• Support material: materials from class
  

Form of assessment: Group presentation and discussion of the report, with individual assessment

• Proportion: 40%

• Duration: 30 minutes (per group) – Friday morning, starting at 9:15.

• Grouping: Individually

• Grading scale: Letter (A - F)

• Support material:

Syllabus

• Aronsson, H., Abrahamsson, M. and Spens, K. (2011). Developing lean and agile health care supply chains, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 176-183.

• Guven-Uslu, P., Chan, H.K., Ijaz, S., Bak, O., whitlow, B., Kumar, V. (2015). In-depth study of “decoupling point” as a reference model: an application for health service supply chain. Production Planning and Control: The Management of Operations, Vol. 25, No. 13-14, pp. 1107-1117.

• Liu, W., Liang, Z., Yi, Z., Liu, L. (2016). The optimal decision of customer order decoupling point for order insertion scheduling in logistics service supply chain. International Journal of Production Economics, 175, 50-70.

• Rahimnia, F, Moghadasian, M. (2010). Supply chain leagility in professional services: how to apply decoupling point concept in health delivery system. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 80-91.

• Wang, Y., Wallace, SS.W., Shen, B., Choi, T-M (2015). Service supply chain management: a review of operational models, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 247, pp. 685-698.

• Wikner, J., Yang, B., Yang, Y., Williams, S.J. (2017). Decoupling thinking in service operations: a case in healthcare delivery system design, Production Planning and Control, Vol, 28, N. 5, pp. 387-397.