I was curious about investigating more, but I realized that unlike topics like mathematics and computer science, I was having a lot of trouble even finding the search terms to use to find textbooks and syllabi, as I didn't even really know what they teach in management school. Could HN help me find a course of self study on management school? Knowledge of what they teach, or what different specializations train you in would be helpful as well, thank you!
All care about having reliable partners, quality, efficiency, and timing (procurement, production, and fulfillment). I recommend you do a combination of lightweight textbooks for a high level overview, (like Wiley "for dummies") and a few case study style books that provide history and deep context (like "The Goal" and "Lean Thinking" by James Womack). These last two books are classics dealing with physical production. However, don't overlook service operations like healthcare and military which are good examples where the end customers primary concern is strategic procurement and distribution. I don't have any recommendations for these industries but maybe someone else.
Only half joking. I think the basic principles of efficient managing can be taught very good through such a game.
It is really fun and challenging, to build up a beautiful flowing process. And then have it all a mess, because a accident happened and a key structure broke down and half your production ran out of storage and the other can't produce. So you adjust and assign and rebuild processes and then a key ressource runs out. So you need to find a new source of supply... So it is all about basic managing and supply chain. How to use the limit resources in the most efficient way and focus grow in a fine tuned manner. And how to keep track of all that in your head.
A different thing is then of course to apply this knowledge in the real world.
And this means mostly choosing, learning and understanding the right software. SAP is (sadly) used a lot. And millions of custom made software ..
I actually believe there is a very big market for someone to come with a better software of managing this. All the solutions I have seen so far, I did not really like. But you have to use what is there and works now.
Google has some pretty cool open-source libraries [1] for working with OR type problems as well. Their guide explains some common problems from a high level and should give you some more keywords and topics to dive into as well.
I'd also recommend MIT's SCM course [2], it has a solid curriculum
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research [1] https://developers.google.com/optimization/introduction/over... [2] https://micromasters.mit.edu/scm/
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Managing-Supply-Chain-Stude...
Maybe you can get access to an e-book version of it. I have a more than decade old ediion at home, and while the some case studies and technologies maybe a little but dated, the overall principles haven't changed. And the book itelf is top-notch content. Older editions of eBay or Amazon should be fine, and also a ot cheaper I assume. I brought mine back from a vacation to India.
That link is the Army Sustainment doctrine. It is a high level generic description on the philosophy of logistics and support for a diversity of operating requirements across a variety of environments.
edit: here's a coursera course that looks like it covers all the basics: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/supply-chain-manage...
I haven’t been a business student in a very long time, but back then ambitious students would often do a six course semester where they would do a full load at my school and grab POM via distance learning. That school and their POM class still exist.
https://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/mgsc/mgsc368.php
You’ll be able to get some terms to search for there, find a textbook and I’d bet anything that if you started plugging chapter titles into YouTube, you could find lectures.
I was too busy starting businesses in business school to have been a very good business student so I can’t claim any expertise on subfields within POM. As far as what they teach, it depends a lot on the exact part of POM you get into. Some is pure mathematical analysis but there is a lot of overlap with cost accounting, human resources and marketing. The projection side is part math, part marketing and part guesswork. The costing side gets really deep into accounting and Human Resources. Some subfields focus heavily on union and industrial relations. You’ll find subfields that delve into OH&S for reasons you don’t want to think too deeply about.
It's a great summary of the major domains involved in operations research/management science/decision science. It definitely helps with the "what do I even search for" part of your question.
https://docs.baseline-protocol.org/radish34/radish34-explain...
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Materials-Management-Ste...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1260084841/ref=dp_ob_neva_mob...
If you're highly technical and would like to learn how to abstract and solve some of the hardest problems in supply chain management, I would actually look into the field of Operations Research. It is basically mathematical modeling and optimization of real world operational and logistics problems. It's so mathematically oriented that it typically is in the mathematics or science departments in universities, as opposed to management. But it is very much an applied specialization of math, directly applicable to supply chain management and other business/logistics areas.
Interestingly, the bullwhip effect is extremely similar to another problem that a lot of people here have a casual interest in: the traveling wave phenomenon of traffic. The requisite similarities are the same. In order for the pattern to appear, there have to be independent actors with cascading delays in the aquisition of information about the future, and a mismatch in the ability to stop production (decelerate) and start production (accelerate). The severity of those traveling waves may change with changes in the severity of the required conditions, but as long as those conditions exist, the traveling waves will always occur.
Interesting consequences also apply. It is mathematically provable that autonomously controlled vehicles cannot get rid of traveling traffic waves. There will always be a delay in information about what lies ahead, whether it is via the limitations of line of sight, or the latency of radio-based communication. And production cars will always stop faster than they accelerate, because stopping has a safety necessity that doesn't exist for acceleration.
Autonomous cars may have faster reaction times than humans, but at highway speeds reaction times are typically 20% or less of stopping times. Therefore they can slightly mitigate the problem. However, notice how everybody talks about how autonomous cars can travel closer together. What this effectively means is that cars can travel closer to the extent that their reaction times are better. This improves unperterbed throughput slightly, but it would actually make the shock-induced traveling waves worse. All it takes is for a stray plastic bag to wander into the roadway and a car to think it's a dog and brake for it. The cars closest to it stop extremely fast but then accelerate slower than they decelerated. Cascading information delays ensure that the wave continues to travel and increases in severity until it reaches some location where buffer spaces are large enough to absorb the wave (due to lower traffic density).
The supply chain parallel problem emphasizes the importance of inventory. Running super lean on inventory can mean lower costs and higher throughput, but it exacerbates the bullwhip effect substantially.