SCM300
Supply Chain Strategy
Connect supply chain choices to what customers need. Compare networks, sourcing arrangements, lean and agile operations, and supplier partnerships using fictional cases.
Course overview
The course runs to 4 chapters and about 21 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
- Objectives — what you should be able to do afterwards.
- Reading — short sections that build the idea in plain language.
- Worked example — a full problem solved step by step.
- Practice — questions with solutions you can expand once you have tried them.
- 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.
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Strategic Fit and the Strategy Canvas
Strategic fit is the discipline of matching capabilities to customer needs, not the hope that a generic chain will serve every segment. When segments disagree, decouple the flows; when only one segment matters, design the whole chain to it.
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Network Design and Sourcing Strategy
Network and sourcing decisions are structural, capital-heavy, and reversible only slowly. Compare total cost including working capital, test sensitivity across demand and FX scenarios, and remember that fixed cost—not variable cost—often dominates the answer.
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Lean, Agile, and Leagile Postures
Most supply chains should be leagile. The strategic decision is not lean versus agile but where to place the decoupling point and how to manage inventory upstream versus downstream of it. Use postponement to keep agile buffers in generic form.
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Partnerships, Alliances, and Risk Posture
Strategic alliances generate compounding value when joint cost work and service improvement run together, but they also lock the buyer in. The right discipline is to value alliances in full (cost, service, optionality) and to manage concentration as a deliberate portfolio decision, not as an afterthought.
Chapters (4)
Open any chapter to see its objectives, reading, worked example, and practice questions.
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Chapter 1: Strategic Fit and the Strategy Canvas
- Explain the four competitive priorities (cost, quality, delivery, flexibility) and how they translate into supply chain capabilities.
- Apply the concept of strategic fit between customer needs and supply chain capabilities.
- Diagnose misfit between an existing chain and the implied target chain for a given customer segment.
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Chapter 2: Network Design and Sourcing Strategy
- Distinguish structural supply chain decisions (plant count, location, capacity) from operating decisions (production schedule, transportation mode choice).
- Compare sourcing models—in-house, single-source, dual-source, near-source—on cost, risk, and lead time.
- Compute a simple total-cost comparison between two network options and identify the dominant cost driver.
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Chapter 3: Lean, Agile, and Leagile Postures
- Define lean, agile, and leagile (hybrid) supply chain postures and the capabilities each requires.
- Match postures to product life cycle, demand variability, and margin structure.
- Estimate the inventory cost difference between lean and agile postures and decide where to place the decoupling point.
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Chapter 4: Partnerships, Alliances, and Risk Posture
- Compare transactional, collaborative, and strategic-supplier relationships along cost, service, and risk dimensions.
- Quantify the financial value of a strategic alliance versus a transactional deal.
- Assess concentration, geopolitical, and capacity risk and propose operational countermeasures.