Master on Logistics and Supply Chain Management

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Master on Logistics and Supply ChainManagement

Progress Report Public Part


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Master on Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Executive Summary

This document is elaborated as a progress report for its evaluation and it summarizesthe current state of the Erasmus Curriculum Development project Master in Logistics

and Supply Chain Management after one year of work. The project aims at thedesign, development and implementation of a Master joint programme in Logisticsand Supply Chain Management, by addressing the main principles, priorities andobjectives for supporting the European Higher Education Area according to theBologna Declaration. The new curriculum is intended to define a suitable academicanswer to an identified need of well-educated professionals in a crucial sector forEuropean economy, with the responsibility to enhance the employability of thegraduated students: specific and transversal learning outcomes, competences andskills, should be defined for their better acceptance in the LSCM labour market.

Four main beneficiary groups can be identified:

Students at master level: bachelor awarded students of economics andengineering, forwarding in their training at the tertiary level at universities andprofessionals requiring new skills and continued training and lifelong training.

Higher Education institutions (consortium partner and others): the participatinginstitution since the project will contribute to enhance the pooling of expertise ofthe collaborating groups, in teaching but also in research. A consortiumenlargement is considered after the master implementation starts.

European Higher Education: this project aims to support the main objectives andpriorities for higher education in Europe.

Labour market: by giving response to a need in present economy of well-educated professionals in the logistics and supply chain able to fit the expectedcompetencies from a graduated at the master level. LSCM industry performancewill be favoured with new professionals educated in an international environment,with a transnational view of the discipline, and according to current needs of themarket

The consortium carrying out this project is composed by six European Universities:The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB-Spain), the Otto-von-GuerickeUniversity of Magdeburg (MAD-Germany), the University of Genoa (UDG-Italy), theRiga Technical University (RTU-Latvia), the University of Linkping (LIU-Sweden)

and the Montan University of Leoben (MUL-Austria). All partners are universitydepartments and all have a long lasting tradition in teaching and researching in thesubject areas and topics of the proposed master programme. Education situation ofthe participating universities in relation to the proposed Master is as follows:

UAB: Bachelor degree (Aeronautics Management), a Master degree (IndustrialComputing and Automation) and a Master Joint degree on AeronauticsManagement, all of them adapted to the Bologna process;

MAD: Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen Logistik (Diploma degree course on IndustrialEngineering in Logistics )

UDG: Management Engineering (Bch and Msc) and Mathematical Modelling &Simulation (doctorate);

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RTU: Information Technology, with a specialization in Industrial LogisticsManagement (Msc);

LIU: Industrial Engineering and Management; Manufacturing Management (Msc)and Production Economics (Doctorate);

MUL: masters in Logistics and Supply Chain (e.g. Logistics Service and TransportManagement, Logistics in Process Industries, Logistics Strategy and SupplyChain Management, Logistics System Design and Factory Planning).

The cooperation and communication between partner institutions are based ondifferent mechanisms:

Consortium public Website for on-line documentation and informationdissemination.

E-mail and web-based collaborative tools for communication, coordination and

information sharing.

Consortium Steering Committee meetings: celebration sites rotating between thepartners with the discussion of joint designs, which later will be developed by thelocal working groups, as the main objective.

The working language is English and the working groups at each institution,coordinated by the local coordinator, implement the joint design decisions.

The cooperation with professional bodies has been identified as a must in thedefinition of a curriculum able to give answer to the market needs. Actions andactivities in cooperation with the professional sector aim at defining a Full-duplex

communication channel between LSCM industry and the master programme: theactive participation of the professional sector at the programme development anddelivery will enhance the curriculum adequacy and, hence, the student employabilityin the sector.

Most of the efforts during this first year have been focused on the informationcollection to define a joint master programme between six European institutions, fromsix different countries. This, essentially, means six different legislative frameworkswith implications on both academic and administrative issues. Main constraints havebeen found in relation to the availability, or unavailability, to award joint masterdiplomas. The consortium is working on the accreditation of a joint programme whereit is allowed and double degree diplomas have been defined as a solution in those

cases where national legislation does not allow joint degrees. Hence, a masterstudent will obtain a joint or a double diploma, depending on the institution where heor she starts and ends his or her instruction.

Regarding the future implementation of the master, three major results have beenachieved to date:

Elaboration of the curriculum proposal: programme structure, module contentsand mobility actions (student and teaching staff), specializations, etc.

Identification of the accreditation procedures. The new master needs to have thenational accreditation at each participating country. Different procedures and time

schedules have been identified.

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Table of Contents

1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES.................................................................................... 7

2. PROJECT APPROACH...................................................................................... 9

3. PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS............................................................... 11

4. PARTNERSHIPS .............................................................................................. 12

5. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.............................................................................. 14

6. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES ................................................................. 15

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1. Project Objectives

This project is intended to define a suitable academic answer to an identified need ofwell-educated professionals in a crucial sector for European economy. The project

aims at the development of a Master joint programme in Logistics and Supply ChainManagement (LSCM), with the responsibility to enhance the employability of thegraduated students by defining specific and transversal learning outcomes for theirbetter acceptance in the LSCM labour market (this has been one of the main drivingforces for the Bologna Process).

The concrete objectives regarding the programme definition and curriculumdevelopment are:

Give response to a need in present economy of well-educated professionals inthe logistics and supply chain field by identifying the common ground topics andfundamental subjects required to fit the expected competencies. The jointprogramme goals and learning outcomes are being defined by the partners incooperation with the professional sector.

Definition of an innovative programme, paying special attention to informationtechnologies, able to give the proper answer to the new challenges in a sectorwhich is crucial for company efficiency and competitiveness and, therefore, forEuropean competitiveness. The new professionals educated at this programmewill be able to take decisions in a transnational environment consideringoperational, tactical and strategic issues from an integrated perspective instead ofa compartmentalized perspective.

Foster the use of ICT, as a learning subject itself, but also as an approach to

support the learning process. Logistics has never been a classical field of e-learning education because of the nature, complexity and interdisciplinary of thesubject area. To overcome this, the project will promote the definition of a learningenvironment that supports learners and teachers in their new roles through easy-accessing technology, attractive design and adaptability according to individualneeds.

Definition of the internal and external monitoring and advising procedures forquality assurance of the curriculum and programme design.

Although English will be the teaching language, much attention will be given tothe learning of local languages by including courses in the curriculum. Easyaccess to local language courses can be provided by the hosting Universities.

The concrete objectives regarding the envisaged European dimension of theprogramme are:

Intensification of the student and teachers mobility to support some of the keychallenges for the development of the EHEA: Enhancing mobility work forcesacross Europe; attracting good students from the whole world; improving thesituation of the EU as far as methodological and technological innovationcapabilities; favouring European LSCM industrys performances in todaysglobalized economy.

Enhance the attractiveness of the joint master programme outside Europe bysearching synergies with Erasmus Mundus.

Define and operate successfully with one set of entry criteria, application formsand admission procedures.

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2. Project Approach

The quality of the programme like the one defined in this project needs to be assuredfrom different points of view: on teaching aspects, it is necessary to adequate the

curriculum topics with respect to the discipline in Europe, as well as ensure theeffectiveness and appropriateness of the teaching methodologies; regarding tomobility, there is a need to maintain reciprocity within the consortium for studentsmobility, teaching staff exchange and in the number of co-supervised MA-theses.Basic principles of European standards and guidelines for quality assurance of highereducation have been adopted to ensure programmes quality.

On the other hand, an effective management is needed during the programmeexecution, specially focused on financial management and results and informationdissemination and exploitation. With this purpose, an active role of each partner isneeded to cover these aspects efficiently.

It is accepted that these criteria are better accomplished by taking several measuresinvolving partners and independent agents: the introduction of independentconsultants, referring to teachers, researchers and professionals within the disciplinefrom institutions outside the Consortium, whose participation has been contemplatedboth in work plans and in the budget; the use of the National Quality AssessmentAgencies and of the procedures of the participating institutions for the assurance ofthe quality and standards; the constitution of the Master Monitoring Board, integratedby one representative of each institution. In addition to internal and externalcommittees, students of the various partner institutions will be also included at

different stages in the analysis and evaluation of the outputs to be achieved.

The LSCM Steering Committee, composed by the coordinator of each partnerinstitution, is the responsible for the project work quality assessment conforming tothe procedures, reports and minutes elaborated for monitoring the work progress,covering the following aspects: Financial Management Progress monitoring, meetings organization and reports elaboration. Joint design decisions regarding the following major issues:

o Detailed task description and assignmento Design of course programme

o Admission/selection criteriao Programme Quality Assurance procedureso Masters Business plano Exploitation and Dissemination

The coordination of these activities is based on the periodic meetings of the steeringcommittee; the web based collaborative tool and continuous e-mail communication.

In order to ensure the proper mechanisms to raise awareness of the newprogramme, a Marketing Plan is being elaborated. The means to disseminate theresults produced during the project progress and to raise awareness of the new

master programme are mainly based on the website (www.master-lscm.eu) and thepromotional materials.

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Actions contemplated in the marketing plan involve two main activities: publicising ofthe Master degree and dissemination of the achieved results. The former is aimed toaddress the new master awareness rising in two directions: students, who shouldidentify the new master as an opportunity for a quality assured European learningprogramme in a field with a recognized need of new professionals; professionals,

identifying in the new programme a continuing education opportunity to update theirknowledge and experience according to the new business practices in Supply ChainManagement. The latter is aimed to disseminate the achieved results (programmerelevance, quality assurance plan, etc) to the main professional bodies andstakeholders within the field of Logistics.

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3. Project Outcomes & Results

The main innovative result of the project is a new joint programme with Europeandimension for a globalized discipline, focused on both theoretical and practical

aspects, as mentioned in the objectives. With this purpose, all courses combinetheoretical education with a significant training in the practical aspects of thedeveloped matters. Moreover, courses have been designed integrating the ITC,engineering and business points of view. E-learning tools will be introduced tofacilitate the autonomous learning by providing easy-access theory and practisematerials, collaborative e-work, case studies. The use of these technologies andtools is included in the projects objectives.

The Master programme, with a clear professional orientation, it is been designedfollowing a two-year structure:

First year is focused on setting up a common background for student coming fromdifferent degrees and countries and will cover the core domain courses of thediscipline, intensifying the fundamentals in problem solving, decision making,organizing, designing, etc. Student mobility will be compulsory during this firstyear.

Second year includes specialized courses, elaboration of the master thesis andpracticum. So far, the following specialization courses have been identified at thisstage: Transport Logistics & SCM; Manufacturing Logistics & SCM; ICT appliedto logistics management; Modelling and Simulation applied to Supply ChainManagement. During this year, students mobility will be promoted.

In both years, students and teachers mobility will be encouraged, as stated in theproject objectives, being compulsory for students during the first year.

During the reported period, the requirements and admission procedures of studentshave been defined. The basic access requirement for a Master programme in allcountries is a first degree at Bachelor level, normally in combination with morespecific requirements defined by the department offering the Master programme. Thespecific requirements are currently being elaborated in detail by taking into accountthe particularities of the participating countries.

In order to facilitate the information flow, a web-based collaborative tool has beendesigned and implemented to share documents and agenda within the consortium.Generated documents are available according to the planned agenda in tools publicarea (http://saturn.uab.es/pub/bscw.cgi/79625).

Aiming for sharing and spreading public information relevant to both the projectprogress and to the programme, a Masters website has been defined and iscurrently being designed and implemented (www.master-lscm.eu).

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4. Partnerships

The European dimension of this collaborative effort becomes of major relevancesince LSCM is essentially the organization and realization of an inter-organizational

and, frequently, trans-national flow (of goods, services, and related information). Theeconomic and social context (business processes, industry, channels, transportinfrastructures, etc) varies for each country. The consortium -research groups butalso their relationships with the economics agents- permits to identify and analyzethis diversity from their Regional/National point of view in order to setup a Europeanperspective.

The partners of the consortium have the experience of previous collaborations bothon education and research project: all the partners have a long lasting tradition incooperating in research, education (teacher and student mobility) and indissemination of knowledge (e.g. co-organizing conferences). The partner institutionshave been selected in respect to already existing cooperation and because theexisting complementarity in teaching and research. All partners have been involvedin Socrates/Erasmus projects at their institutions and all have experience in theorganisation, coordination and management of conferences and workshops.In addition, members of all institutions are involved, or in narrow relation, withregional trade chambers, logistics national/European associations and port/airportauthorities. The opportunity for the definition of the proposed European Master isframed at these collaborations. The initiative emerges in this context to elaborate aprogramme able to fulfil market needs for professional competence in the intersectionof business, operation management and new technologies, which is the consortium

pool of expertise.

Projects programme is being designed from the teaching experience, knowledge andexpertise of researchers and qualified professionals belonging to six differentEuropean countries. It may be expected that the combination of different academic,social and economical cultures will produce a new joint programme, which is greaterthan the sum of their parts, in order to educate new professionals whose labourmarket is transnational. The programme provides new learning opportunities to bothEuropean and non European students by accessing into an international programmewith the attractiveness and major benefits of studying in other learning environments.Mobility is an essential component of the proposed joint programme, so special

attention and efforts will be given to boost the mobility of students, teachers andresearchers. Student mobility will be compulsory for the students enrolled at the firstyear and it will be promoted during Masters second year. Visiting teachers one toeach partner institution per year will teach a specialized course at a partnerinstitution. The European dimension of the programme is an appealing factor toattract students from outside Europe, so the project intends synergies with ErasmusMundus to increase institutional cooperation with the wider world.

The participating groups have cooperated in the following education and researchprojects:

The groups at Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona, Otto-von-Guericke Universityof Magdeburg and Riga Technical University have collaborated in the EC

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Leonardo da Vinci programme procedure B project LOGIS MOBILELV/04/B/F/PP-172.001 (2004-2006) Competence Framework for Mobile On-siteAccelerated Vocational Training in Logistics Information Systems. This projectwas aimed at development of new training and consulting methods, which wouldreduce the time of learning and amount of study material required. A second

objective was to use currently prevalent mobile communication technologies, inorder to diminish costs of the learning process and move it from the classes toany other place acceptable for an employee.

The groups at University of Genoa, Riga Technical University and the DivisionEconomic Information Systems (Department of Computer and InformationScience) at the University of Linkping have collaborated in the EC VocationalTraining Action Programme LEONARDO DA VINCI procedure B project LOGISLV-PP-138.003 (2000-2002) "Long-Distance Tutorial in Logistics InformationSystems based on Web Technologies". This project was aimed at development ofgeneral background for specialists of transport and logistics enterprises. Giveadditional knowledge about designing of information processing systems to

specialists in logistics as well as present information about solving of logisticsproblems to ITCE specialists.

The groups at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Riga Technical University andUniversity of Genoa are leading simulation centres integrated at the McLeodInstitute of Simulation Sciences (MISS) network. The mission of MISS is to fosterthe professionalism in modelling and simulation, the advancement of the art andscience of M&S, the usage of M&S in all domains of applicability, the educationand the dissemination of M&S-related knowledge (www.simulationscience.org).

In teaching exchange, the University of Magdeburg is one of the main partners ofMontanuniversitt Leoben (MUL). Prof. Gaby Neumann is holding the lecture"Material Flow Management" each summer within the master programme"Logistics Management" at MUL Chair of Industrial Logistics. There are also anumber of contributions to the Magdeburger Logistics Days from the lecturersfrom MUL. There is a regular student exchange between both universities. Dr.Zsifkovits from MUL has cooperated in the development of the EuropeanEducational Standard for Logistician (Competence Model of the EuropeanLogistics Association).

The groups at Universitat Autonma de Barcelona, Riga Technical University,University of Genoa and the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg havecollaborated during last years in the organization of various internationalconferences and workshops in Modelling & Simulation and Harbour & Maritime

Logistics.

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5. Plans for the Future

Mobility is an essential component of the proposed joint degree programme, sospecial attention and efforts are to be given to boost the mobility of students,

teachers and researchers. As mentioned, students mobility will be compulsory afterthe first year and promoted during Masters second year, while visiting teachers willteach a specialized course at a partner institution. In order to achieve this scenario,special attention is to be given to the definition of mobility programmes according toErasmus and Erasmus Mundus programmes framework.

By participating in the project and signing the letter of intent for the programme, allpartner institutions have declared their willingness to support the continuation of theMaster degree programme after the successful end of the project. Joint degreesconstitute a major interest in the future development of higher education withinEurope and the Bologna process. Thus, special care is being addressed to fulfil thedifferent requirements and procedures for the programme accreditation according tolegal aspects and procedures at each country.

According to the defined Marketing Plan, promotional material (e.g. leaflets,brochures) complementary to internet advertising is to be designed and elaboratedfor attracting new students. In addition to the Marketing Plan actions addressed tonew students, proper communication channels with the professional sector are to beemphasized: companies should see in the graduates of new programme an answerto their need of logisticians who have solid business skills as well as strong decision-making capabilities and a deep understanding of the latest information technologydevelopments. Moreover, the project is to be presented as a contribution to aninternational Conference on Education (e.g. SEFI or EAIE).

The final result of the project is the definition of a new Master degree with aEuropean dimension. Hence, a business plan is to be defined to assure theimplementation and delivery of the Master degree after the project ends. Thus,programmes viability is ensured by focusing on a proper financial structure regardingseveral aspects: adequacy assurance between the programme needs and theFaculty resources of the participating institutions; funds to support teaching staff andstudents mobility; private sponsoring to support Practicum activities and to providewith scholarships to improve accessibility for economically disadvantaged students.

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6. Contribution to EU policies

The envisaged joint programme contributes to further strengthen the importantEuropean dimensions of higher education. The project aims at the definition and

development of a Joint Master programme able to respond to a social andeconomical need of well-educated professionals in a sector which is crucial forcompany efficiency and competitiveness and, therefore, for Europeancompetitiveness.

The cooperation of six institutions in six member countries will contribute to therealization of a European Higher Education Area. The insistence on cooperation andmobility both for students and for teaching staff in this joint programme meets actualand future challenges to education and training. Moreover, it will attract goodstudents from the whole world, being one of the key challenges for the developmentof the European Higher Education Area to make possible the integration of thestudents in a unified labour, favouring European Industrys performances in todaysglobalized economy.

The development of the joint programme is to be done according to the Bolognaprocess, so ECTS is to be used as the tool for recognition. A transparent and unifiedmarks system will be implemented to allow an easy recognition of the studentsrecord in other universities of the European space. In addition, an accompaniment tothe diploma (Diploma Supplement) will clarify the received formation (to clearlyvisualize different specializations and intensifications achieved in the programme)and will facilitate the recognition in other universities. These measures guarantee

transparency by providing detailed information on the curricula and their relevancetowards a joint degree.

As a summary, the joint programme is aimed to emphasize and contribute to EUpolicies focusing on the following aspects:

Encourage the rapid implementation of EHEA and Bologna reform. Encourage more effective degree recognition throughout Europe. Use of ECTS and Diploma Supplement. Being able to respond to European professional development needs (training in

an international environment on transnational issues).

Develop European citizenship and cultural understanding.

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Master on Logistics and Supply Chain Management

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