Advanced Supply Chain Strategy and Optimization Training Course

Course overview

Supply chain leaders are expected to improve service, working capital and resilience at the same time, often across fragmented data, volatile demand and supplier constraints. This course addresses the decisions that sit behind those outcomes: where to hold inventory, how to segment customers and suppliers, when to redesign a network, how to set service policies, and how to quantify trade-offs before committing capital or changing operating models. Participants learn to move from operational firefighting to evidence-based supply chain strategy.

The course covers end-to-end supply chain design using the ASCM SCOR Digital Standard, demand and supply segmentation, inventory optimization, network modelling, sourcing risk analysis, sales and operations planning (S&OP), and performance governance. Participants work with service-level calculations, safety-stock logic, total landed cost, scenario modelling, capacity constraints, supplier risk scorecards and balanced supply chain KPIs. They develop the ability to translate strategic priorities into explicit decision rules, model assumptions and improvement initiatives that can be defended to finance, procurement, operations and executive stakeholders.

Delivery combines instructor-led explanation with quantitative workshops, case analysis and group design reviews. Participants use Excel Solver, Power BI and supply chain modelling techniques to test alternative policies and evaluate cost, service, risk and cash impacts. Each participant leaves with a documented supply chain optimization blueprint: a current-state diagnostic, priority opportunity portfolio, scenario assumptions, KPI set, governance cadence and a practical 90-day implementation plan tailored to their organisation or a supplied case.

The programme is best suited to experienced supply chain, procurement, planning, logistics and operations professionals who influence cross-functional decisions and need stronger analytical methods for network, inventory, sourcing and service-level trade-offs.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Diagnose an end-to-end supply chain using the ASCM SCOR Digital Standard process, performance and practice framework
• Build a supply chain segmentation model using demand variability, margin, service criticality and supply risk criteria
• Calculate inventory policy parameters including cycle stock, safety stock, reorder points and service-level trade-offs
• Model network scenarios using total landed cost, capacity, lead time, duty and emissions assumptions
• Evaluate supplier and sourcing risk through a weighted risk scorecard and mitigation portfolio
• Construct an S&OP decision pack that reconciles demand, supply, inventory, capacity and financial implications
• Design a Power BI KPI dashboard specification for service, cash, cost, resilience and sustainability measures
• Produce a 90-day supply chain optimization roadmap with owners, benefits hypotheses, milestones and governance

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Supply Chain Managers — who must balance customer service, inventory investment, cost and resilience across functions
• Supply Chain Directors — who need defensible options for network, operating-model and capability decisions
• Demand Planning Managers — who convert forecast uncertainty into inventory, capacity and service policies
• Procurement Managers — who assess sourcing strategy, supplier concentration and total landed-cost exposure
• Logistics and Distribution Managers — who evaluate warehouse, transport and fulfilment network performance
• Operations Excellence Managers — who lead cross-functional improvement portfolios and benefit-realisation reviews

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in supply chain, procurement, logistics, planning or operations, ideally with responsibility for KPIs, inventory, suppliers, capacity or service performance. The course assumes familiarity with basic concepts such as lead time, forecast, inventory, supplier performance, cost of goods and service level. Participants should be comfortable working with spreadsheets, including formulas, filters and charts; prior use of Excel Solver or Power BI is helpful but not required. No advanced statistics, coding, ERP configuration or specialist network-design software experience is required.

Training methodology

The five days alternate between focused instructor-led sessions and applied decision workshops. Participants analyse a multi-site manufacturer-distributor case, working from demand, inventory, supplier, capacity and transport data to identify constraints and test improvement options. Exercises use Excel Solver for constrained decisions and Power BI for KPI design, while group reviews challenge assumptions on cost, service, risk and feasibility. Daily outputs build towards an individual optimization blueprint. The final session uses peer critique and instructor feedback to convert analysis into a prioritised 90-day application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Strategic Supply Chain Diagnosis

• Supply chain strategy choices: cost, service, resilience, cash and sustainability
• ASCM SCOR Digital Standard process and performance attributes
• End-to-end value-stream and material-flow mapping
• Supply chain maturity assessment and constraint identification
• Customer profitability and service-policy alignment
• Supply chain segmentation by demand, value and criticality
• KPI trees linking operational drivers to financial outcomes

Workshop: Participants create a current-state SCOR-based diagnostic and KPI tree for a multi-site supply chain case.

Day 2: Demand, Inventory and Service Optimization

• Demand variability, forecast bias and forecast-accuracy interpretation
• ABC-XYZ inventory segmentation and policy differentiation
• Cycle stock, safety stock and reorder-point calculations
• Service-level definitions: fill rate, OTIF and cycle service level
• Lead-time variability and inventory risk pooling
• Multi-echelon inventory logic and decoupling-point decisions
• Excel Solver models for constrained inventory allocation

Workshop: Participants build an inventory policy model that recommends safety stock, reorder points and allocation rules under a service target.

Day 3: Network, Capacity and Logistics Design

• Network design objectives and strategic modelling assumptions
• Total landed cost analysis across suppliers, lanes and distribution nodes
• Facility location, warehouse role and fulfilment-flow choices
• Transport mode selection and load-consolidation trade-offs
• Capacity constraints, bottleneck analysis and throughput scenarios
• Make-buy and nearshore-offshore scenario evaluation
• Carbon-emissions measures in network decision models

Workshop: Participants compare network scenarios and produce a recommendation covering cost, service, capacity, risk and emissions.

Day 4: Sourcing Resilience and Integrated Planning

• Supplier portfolio segmentation and concentration exposure
• Weighted supplier risk scorecards and risk heat maps
• Should-cost, total cost of ownership and supplier-switching costs
• Dual sourcing, buffering and contingency strategy selection
• S&OP and integrated business planning decision cycles
• Demand-supply reconciliation and exception-based planning
• Financial translation of volume, inventory and capacity scenarios

Workshop: Participants prepare an S&OP decision pack with a supplier disruption scenario, response options and financial implications.

Day 5: Performance Governance and Implementation

• Balanced supply chain scorecards for cost, cash, service, risk and sustainability
• Leading and lagging indicators for control-tower governance
• Power BI dashboard requirements and data-model design
• Benefit hypotheses, baselines and measurement methods
• Initiative prioritisation using impact-effort-risk scoring
• RACI roles, decision rights and review cadences
• Ninety-day implementation planning and change adoption actions

Workshop: Participants complete and present a supply chain optimization blueprint containing dashboard requirements, a prioritised roadmap and 90-day action plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel Solver, Microsoft Power BI, AnyLogistix, ASCM SCOR Digital Standard

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions