As always, NCCU IMBA Program frequently reviews the needs of the business environment and prepares the best for future leaders. This semester, a 2-credit elective course – Supply Chain Management is added to enrich the course list.
The course is taught by a newly joined faculty, Dr. Hsiao-Hui Lee. Her research areas included supply chain management, healthcare and service operations management, innovation and sustainability. She first acquired her BS and MS in Civil Engineering from the National Taiwan University. She further studied in the Simon Business School of the University of Rochester in New York for her MS and Ph.D. in Operations Management. She then worked almost 8 years in the University of Hong Kong (HKU) which globally ranked 36th in Year 2019 by the Times Higher Education, and as a Program director of Master of Science in Business Analytics in HKU from Year 2018 to 2019. This year, she has come back to Taiwan and continued her career in NCCU.
The course outline is well-designed. It aims to prepare students to apply business strategies, analytical methodologies and information technology in supply chain management. Despite the approach of focusing the operation evaluation and performance improvement of the manufacturing process in the traditional industry, the course focuses on the systems approach to the planning, analysis, design, development, and evaluation of supply chain management.
The contents are also well-covered. First, there is an introduction of principles and approaches to enhance knowledge and experience of management decision-making in business logistics. Then, it comes with the study of modern technology to reduce costs and improve service in supply chain management. Follow, it carries out a project and research on information technology, operation management, and business strategy for supply chain management in manufacturing and service industries.
Traditional teach-and-listen method never happened in the program. “The success of this course depends on your contribution to the lectures and case discussions through preparation and active participation.” mentioned on Prof. Lee’s syllabus. The professor aims to create an interactive learning environment. She is good at initiating discussion but also requires students to perform constructive interaction, pushes them to think further and deeper into the contents raises and useful suggestions with be given. In addition, there are plenty of cases which most represent the supply chain ecosystem are selected for studying. Students are required to make critical observation and analyzation to wrap up what they learn from the case studies. Even some of the cases happened decades ago, the professor requests students to know about the updated situation of that company, at the same time provides the most updated information for further evaluation. She also posts extra and backup readings for the ones who what to further understand the contents.
Aligning with her teaching approach, Prof. Lee fully utilizes technology. She posts supportive materials includes up-to-date YouTube videos, online articles and also open an after-class discussion broad on WM5 - the NCCU digital learning platform for further discussion outside the classroom. There are also in-class games for students to experience some real supply chain situations, for example, the Newsvendor game and the Shortage game to show the supply chain problems under information insufficient, and also supply shortage. It is an easy and fun method to learn about difficult concepts.
Again, let’s give our warmest welcome to the new Professor, Dr. Lee to join the IMBA family, and it is highly recommended to take this as an elective to prepare yourself to be an all-rounded decision-making future leader in the business world.
Pictures:
Prof. Lee uses up-to-date examples to explain the concepts.
Prof. Lee uses a game to show how switching cost and cutting batch size affect production time.
Students actively participate in class.
Students doing presentation about supply chain cases.
