MS in Supply Chain Management

Contact

For contact information, please visit the Metropolitan College website.

Over the past half-century, the area of supply chain management has grown from improving labor-intensive processes to managing complex global networks. Today, overseeing a modern, global supply chain means developing and mobilizing complex international networks—putting a premium on professionals who have expertise in supply chain management along with the capability to navigate these geographically and culturally dispersed entities efficiently.

The Master of Science (MS) in Supply Chain Management program at Boston University’s Metropolitan College examines the design, optimization, and operation of a global supply chain. Graduates of the program will be able to analyze and improve business process flows and become confident decisionmakers who will lead change and offer creative solutions that ensure prompt delivery of goods and services in an ever-changing global environment.

Learning Outcomes

Students completing the MS in Supply Chain Management will be able to demonstrate:

  • An understanding of the importance of supply chain management decisions in developing a business strategy for a firm.
  • Foundational knowledge in supply chain management and its core principles that are necessary to integrate supply chain operations with marketing strategies.
  • Knowledge of key supply chain management issues and tools vital in analyzing supply chain decision problems.

Admissions Information

For current admissions information, please visit the Metropolitan College website.

Degree Requirements

A total of 10 courses (40 credits) is required. Each student enrolling in the program is required to take a test to evaluate their mathematical and statistical skills. Those students who need a refresher on fundamentals will be directed to the following free, self-paced laboratories: MwaM: Mathematics with Applications in Management and SwaM: Statistics with Applications in Management. Students who perform unsatisfactorily in the laboratories must take AD 510 Mathematics & Statistics in Management.

Degree Core Courses (four courses/16 credits)

  • MET AD 605 Operations Management
  • MET AD 632 Financial Concepts
  • MET AD 680 Global Supply Chains
  • MET AD 715 Quantitative and Qualitative Decisionmaking

Specialization Courses (three courses/12 credits)

Students not choosing a concentration in Analytics, Logistics Management, or Risk Management must select three courses from the following list:

  • AD 571 Business Analytics Foundations (pre-req for AD 616)
  • AD 610 Enterprise Risk Management
  • AD 616 Enterprise Risk Analytics
  • AD 644 Project Risk and Cost (pre-req: PM 100)
  • AD 690 Strategic Logistics Management
  • AD 734 Quality Management*
  • AD 760 International Trade and Logistics

*Students who take AD 734 and meet certain performance standards will earn Six Sigma Green Belt certification. Students who take both AD 605 and AD 734 and meet certain performance standards will earn a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

Elective Courses (two courses/8 credits)

Select two graduate-level courses. These courses can be selected from other Administrative Sciences department offerings or Metropolitan College departments as well as from other schools and colleges within Boston University, with an advisor’s approval.

Capstone Project (one course/4 credits)

  • MET AD 804 Capstone Project for Supply Chain Management

Concentrations

Students in the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management may select a concentration in Analytics, Logistics Management, or Risk Management.

Analytics

The goal of the Analytics concentration is to equip students with advanced quantitative skills needed to analyze and manage complex supply chains.

Learning Outcomes

Additionally, students completing the Analytics concentration will be able to:

  • Use interlinked data inputs, analytics models, and decision-support tools to better understand supply chain operations, customers, and markets.
  • Describe the performance of a manufacturing, service, or business process using appropriate statistical calculations and displays, to support effective decisionmaking.
  • Apply analytical methods and recognize misapplications in the works of others by presenting performance results in ways that inform a management audience.

Logistics Management

Students completing the concentration in Logistics Management will gain a solid understanding of the logistics-related issues in the management of complex global supply chains.

Learning Outcomes

Additionally, students completing the Logistics Management concentration will be able to:

  • Design and coordinate transportation systems in multiple directions across closed-loop global supply networks, while reducing shipping and storage costs.
  • Manage logistic supplier relationships, including supply chain consortiums and joint ventures.
  • Plan import/export transactions and create strategies to take advantage of global economic trends.
  • Apply the process-oriented tools and techniques of contemporary quality management to control quality and performance across a global supply chain that is geographically dispersed.

Risk Management

Students completing the Risk Management concentration will gain a solid understanding of risk-related issues in managing global supply chains.

Learning Outcomes

Additionally, students completing the Risk Management concentration will be able to:

  • Assess and categorize the key threats faced by a global supply chain and apply the logic and key principles of enterprise risk management.
  • Understand the foundations of business continuity planning and crisis management and diagnose both properly managed and improperly managed risks.
  • Evaluate the costs associated with major supply chain initiatives that require careful project planning, including identifying and mitigating various risks.
  • Apply the process-oriented tools and techniques of contemporary quality management to control quality and performance across a global supply chain that is geographically dispersed.

Good Standing

No grade lower than B– may be applied toward degree, certificate, or diploma requirements. Students earning below a 3.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA) will be placed on academic probation status. Students on academic probation must make satisfactory progress toward achieving a minimum of 3.0 by the following semester, and must be in a position to graduate with a 3.0 or better within the remaining program courses. While grades of B or B– are considered passing, these grades will not assist in raising an unsatisfactory GPA to a satisfactory level. Therefore, students must obtain a minimum grade of B+ during a probation period.

Students who, in the determination of the department and based on past student performance, are not in a position to raise their GPA to the necessary level to graduate within the remaining courses will be dismissed from the program. Students who have not removed themselves from academic probation status after one semester for full-time status or three courses for part-time status will be dismissed from the program.