SCM400

Global Supply Chains

Compare regional sourcing choices, long lead times, currency exposure, and disruption risk. Four chapters use fictional cases to show how these choices affect cost and inventory.

  • 4 chapters
  • ~25 min of reading
  • 12 learning objectives
  • 12 practice questions

Course overview

The course runs to 4 chapters and about 25 minutes of reading. Every chapter is self-contained: read it in one sitting, work the example on paper, then check yourself against the practice solutions before moving on.

The learning path below shows how the chapters build on one another, and each chapter card lists what you should be able to do once you have finished it.

How each chapter works

  1. Objectives — what you should be able to do afterwards.
  2. Reading — short sections that build the idea in plain language.
  3. Worked example — a full problem solved step by step.
  4. Practice — questions with solutions you can expand once you have tried them.
  5. Takeaway — the one sentence worth remembering.

Learning path

Chapters build on each other. This is the arc from first principles to the end of the course.

  1. Lead-Time Geometry and the Global Pipeline

    Global supply chains are dominated by the geometry of their pipelines. Treat each lane's transit-time variance as a primary input to safety stock, and treat pipeline inventory as a working-capital cost that belongs in any mode or sourcing comparison.

  2. Currency Exposure and Operating Decisions

    Currency exposure is an operational problem as well as a financial one. Without resorting to legal or financial advice, supply chain managers can respond with sourcing, inventory, and routing levers; the right response scales with the expected persistence of the move.

  3. Regional Sourcing and Total Cost

    Regional sourcing is a tradeoff between unit-cost savings and operational benefits (shorter pipeline, lower disruption cost, faster response). The right comparison is total landed cost per unit delivered on a comparable service assumption, plus an explicit risk premium for concentration.

  4. Designing for Resilience in Global Chains

    Resilience is a portfolio of levers matched to the shock profile. Pure safety stock handles short shocks; dual-source and near-shore handle structural shocks; the right mix is the cheapest combination that meets the company's risk tolerance, not the maximum insurance available.

Chapters (4)

Open any chapter to see its objectives, reading, worked example, and practice questions.

  1. Chapter 1: Lead-Time Geometry and the Global Pipeline

    • Translate geographic distance and mode choice into inventory pipeline days.
    • Compute pipeline inventory and the implied working-capital cost across regions.
    • Diagnose where a global pipeline is exposed to schedule risk.

    3 sections · ~6 min read · 3 practice questions

  2. Chapter 2: Currency Exposure and Operating Decisions

    • Identify the operational levers that respond to currency moves without resorting to legal or financial advice.
    • Compute the impact of a currency move on landed cost and reorder point.
    • Distinguish transactional from structural currency exposure.

    3 sections · ~6 min read · 3 practice questions

  3. Chapter 3: Regional Sourcing and Total Cost

    • Compare regional, near-shore, and off-shore sourcing on a total landed-cost basis including inventory.
    • Compute the break-even labor-cost gap that justifies moving production between regions.
    • Diagnose where regional concentration creates resilience risk.

    3 sections · ~6 min read · 3 practice questions

  4. Chapter 4: Designing for Resilience in Global Chains

    • Quantify the expected cost of a disruption on a global lane.
    • Compare dual-sourcing, near-shoring, and safety-stock as resilience strategies.
    • Identify the operational signals that a chain is becoming fragile.

    3 sections · ~7 min read · 3 practice questions