OPIM 398 - Retail Supply Chains

Institution:

University of Pennsylvania

Subject:

Description:

The course will examine how retailers understand their customers' preferences and respond with appropriate products through effective supply chain management. The course class sections will deal with the following major items: (1) linking finance and operations in retailing, (2) what assortment of products should a retailer carry in each store, (3) optimizing the inventory carried of each SKU in each store, (4) markdown pricing, (5) store execution and (6) supply chain design. In addition, we will consider a broad range of issues facing two retailers, Mothers Work, and Best Buy, when we are visited by current and past senior executives from these firms. The course is highly recommended for students interested in careers in: (1) Retailing and retail supply chains, (2) Businesses like banking, consulting and information technology that provide services to retail firms, (3) Manufacturing companies that sell their products through retail firms. Even if you don't expect to work for a retailer, this course can be useful to you in two ways. First, because retailers are such dominant players in many supply chains today, it is important that the processes they follow be understood by manufacturers and distributors, or by the consultants and bankers that service retailers and their suppliers. Second, the problems retailers face (e.g., making data accessible, interpreting large amounts of data, reducing lead-times, eliciting the best efforts from employees, and so forth), are shared by firms in many other industries. It's easier to understand these issues through case studies in retailing because we all experience the industry as consumers and can readily relate to chronic problems such as stock outs and markdowns. The course will be highly interactive, using case discussions in more than half of the classes and including senior retail executives in a number of the class sessions.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.upenn.edu

Phone Number:

(215) 898-5000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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