Executive Education

Instructor:  Dr. Stanislaus Solomon
Date:  October 14-16, 2026
Fee: $ 950 

Course Description

This 2.5-day online training program will provide participants with practical frameworks for understanding and improving supply chain performance. The sessions will focus on key decisions involving demand, capacity, inventory, uncertainty, and coordination across the supply chain. Concepts will be illustrated through business examples, short decision exercises, and managerial applications relevant to organizations across a range of industries.

Agenda

Morning Session: 8:30 AM – Noon
Afternoon Session: 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

   AM: Introduction to Modern Supply Chain Issues and Decisions
     This session will:
     - Introduce the key principles of modern supply chain management
     - Discuss how supply chain decisions affect cost, service, responsiveness, and overall business performance
     - Explore how supply chain strategy should be matched to product and market characteristics
     - Distinguish strategic, planning, and operational supply chain decisions
     - Introduce major supply chain tradeoffs and their managerial implications
     - Provide an interactive demonstration of how decisions made by individual firms can affect performance
       across the entire supply chain

   PM: Demand Forecasting and Data-Driven Planning
     This session will:
     - Introduce the foundational principles of demand forecasting
     - Explain commonly used time-series forecasting methods
     - Discuss how forecast accuracy and forecast bias can be evaluated
     - Demonstrate how managers can select and improve forecasting approaches
     - Discuss the role of forecasts in capacity, workforce, inventory, and resource planning
     - Use prepared examples to illustrate how demand information can support better planning decisions

Thursday, October 15, 2026

   AM: Process Capacity, Bottlenecks, and Continuous Improvement
     This session will:
     - Introduce a process view of operations and supply chain activities
     - Explain how to identify bottlenecks and evaluate process capacity
     - Distinguish capacity, actual flow rate, and resource utilization      
     - Examine the relationship among inventory, throughput, and lead time
     - Discuss how variability, batching, setup time, and high utilization affect process performance
     - Introduce Lean principles for identifying waste and non-value-added activities
     - Examine how smaller batches, improved flow, and setup reduction can improve operational performance
     - Identify practical approaches for increasing throughput, reducing waiting, and supporting continuous
       improvement

  PM: Managing Inventory, Flow, and Supply Chain Uncertainty
     This session will:
     - Explain the major roles that inventory plays within a supply chain
     - Discuss the relationship among uncertainty, inventory, customer service, and cost
     - Examine how excessive inventory can mask process problems, variability, and poor flow
     - Introduce strategies for managing demand and supply uncertainty
     - Examine how risk pooling can reduce the impact of demand variability
     - Discuss product, location, and capacity pooling strategies
     - Introduce postponement and other approaches for maintaining flexibility
     - Compare push and pull approaches to managing supply and demand
     - Discuss how Lean and pull principles can reduce unnecessary inventory while maintaining service
     - Examine the tradeoffs among efficiency, responsiveness, resilience, and operational flexibility

Friday, October 16, 2026

   AM: Supply Chain Coordination and the Bullwhip Effect
     This session will:
     - Explain why supply chain performance depends on coordination across organizations
     - Introduce the bullwhip effect and its impact on inventory, capacity, cost, and service
     - Examine common causes of supply chain instability, including order batching, promotions, shortage
       behavior, and overreaction to demand changes
     - Discuss how information sharing and improved demand visibility can reduce supply chain distortion
     - Introduce approaches such as vendor-managed inventory and collaborative planning
     - Examine how incentives and decision-making across firms can create coordination problems
     - Discuss practical strategies for improving alignment among customers, suppliers, and supply chain partners

Registration

Register OnlineQuestions?  Call 618-650-5440.

Individual Course Cancellation and Refund Policy

The SIUE Executive Education division of the School of Business reserves the right to cancel or postpone any course when necessary. If we cancel or postpone a course for any reason, you may choose to receive a FULL refund or apply the course fee to a subsequent offering of the same or a similar course. The latter option may be exercised within one calendar year of the original course.

If you register and pay for a course and then withdraw a one week or more before the start date of the course, a full refund of the course fee less an administrative fee of $25 will be made.

If cancellation occurs less than one week before the start date of the course, no refund of the course fee will be made; however, at the discretion of the Director of Executive Education Programs, the course fee may be applied to a subsequent offering of the same or similar course with a course fee that is at least equal to the cost of the original course. If the course fee of a subsequent course exceeds the amount paid for the original course, the difference in the course fee amounts must be paid in full prior to the start of the subsequent course. An approved substitution must occur within one calendar year of the original course.