MO9702 - Supply Chain Sustainability, Risk and Resilience Management

Critical reflection on knowledge, experience and practice underpins the learning and teaching philosophy along with the explicit development of competence. This is key to your learning on the module. To put this in place, the module will be taught by lectures and seminars covering the key issues in supply chain sustainability, resilience and risk. The seminars will be interactive with tutor and students’ inputs, facilitating the linkage between theory provided through the lecture sessions with practice-oriented application.

The module is supported by a teaching and learning plan, which outlines the formal sessions, together with the tutor-directed study and independent reading. An interactive approach to lecture sessions will draw upon the directed learning undertaken and your own experiences. Throughout, the emphasis will be on high levels of your participation, both individually and within small groups or teams. You can therefore expect the reflective-practitioner approach to learning to be embedded in all seminar sessions through undertaking activities which facilitate you to apply theory to ‘real-life’ situations, critically analysing and making recommendations for appropriate ways forward for the supply chain/organization/individual, aligned to the theoretical underpinning built into the module.

The design of this module will encourage your development as an independent learner, enabling you to explore issues arising and make extensive use of the available information technology. You will have opportunity to work on different ranges of relevant and current case studies which provide both a national and global focus to identify a series of relevant contemporary supply chain sustainability and risk issues and challenges.

The module is supported by a teaching and learning plan, which outlines the formal sessions, together with the tutor-directed study and independent reading. An interactive approach to lecture sessions will draw upon the directed learning undertaken and your own experiences. Throughout, the emphasis will be on high levels of your participation, both individually and within small groups or teams. You can therefore expect the reflective-practitioner approach to learning to be embedded in all seminar sessions through undertaking activities which facilitate you to apply theory to ‘real-life’ situations, critically analysing and making recommendations for appropriate ways forward for the supply chain/organization/individual.

Directed learning will centre upon a range of activities including pre-reading, preparation for interactive activities and use of the discussion board on the e-learning platform. Independent learning will centre upon you identifying and pursuing areas of interest in relation to the subject area or by providing deeper/broader knowledge and understanding of the subject through a range of learning activities that might include extended reading, reflection, research etc. Critical reflection on knowledge, experience and practice underpins the learning and teaching philosophy along with the explicit development of competence. The approach to research informed teaching within the module is primarily centred on lectures and seminars which provide the knowledge base for the module.

Technology Enabled Learning is central to your learning support using the e-learning portal, with associated electronic reading list, electronic submission of assessment and Panopto recordings of lectures and assessment preparation sessions. You are supported through Research Rich Learning, where you will in engage in research as part of your seminar preparation and your assessment, thereby engaging in enquiry-based learning) will be used. A research-tutored approach will be adopted, whereby learning, as appropriate will involve students discussing research and critically engaging in research based discussion; further supported by staff using contemporary work of an international nature, as illustrated through the module reading list, to contextualise the lecture content within the module.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:
• Understand and critically evaluate the wider impact of individual or organisational decision making on risk and risk-resilience, sustainable development, green supply chain management and international logistics management contexts. [MLO1]
• Acquire, interpret and critically apply knowledge of sustainable supply chain management and risk-resilience in international logistics and supply chain management. [MLO2]

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• Demonstrate effective team-based research with specific application to sustainable and ethical supply chains. [MLO3]
• Manage and effectively communicate the key outcomes from this team-based research. [MLO4]

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• Reflect on the professional and ethical values as a practitioner in the supply chain discipline. [MLO5]

The module will be assessed by two summative components: with one Group Poster Presentation (20%) and one individual assignment (80%).

Group Poster Presentation (20%)
Each group should select a real-world case study within a particular sector/industry and will critically evaluate supply chain risk management and/or demonstrate the level of sustainable supply chain improvement opportunities, barriers and/or potential(s) for improvement of sustainable supply chain management and operational effectiveness.
This will assess MLO3, MLO4 and MLO5.


Individual Assignment (80%)
Individual assignment: (3,000 words):
A critical analysis of a selected organisation's approaches to Strategic Supply Chain Risk Management and Sustainable Supply Chain Management.
This will assess MLO1 and MLO2.

Formative assessment will take place through group work and mini-group presentations on real-world case studies from industry within seminar sessions. Mini-group presentations will take place in Weeks 6 and 10. Some examples of presentations may for instance, include how Coca Cola manages risk and resilience in the context of production and supply across its global chains. Other examples may include a case study of food production (citrus fruits) and supply from South Africa to supermarket retailers in the global north and the Spanish, specifically Almeria’s fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain, the World’s largest producer of such commodities to Europe and beyond.

You will be formatively assessed on how you critically evaluate supply chain risk management and/or demonstrate the level of sustainable supply chain improvement opportunities, barriers and/or potential(s) for improvement of sustainable supply chain management and risk management.

You will also receive formative feedback from tutors on your team-based research and poster development, alongside the development of your individual report. This will involve face-to-face feedback and will take place during the seminars, where you will also be able to share your teamwork with fellow students. Detailed guidance on the development of the individual report and poster will be given during the lectures and seminars.

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This module applies concepts of supply chain sustainability, resilience and risk to contemporary issues of risk and sustainability impacting 21st Century Supply Chains and their associated networks. Greening supply chains, ethics, sustainability and risk resilience are key themes which cover salient, local to global issues such as decarbonisation within logistics, wider global supply chain externalities such as Climate Change, and most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. The module provides you with a thorough understanding of the tools and techniques necessary to analyse, evaluate and implement best practice to generate risk-resilient and sustainable supply chains as part of a broader inclusive Circular Economy. You will develop a capacity to critically review the principles and applications of Supply Chain Risk Management and Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the context of risk and vulnerability in commercial environments. The module is research led and research tutored, where you will learn about research through wider subject reading to supplement various management theories presented during lectures. You will be asked to conduct independent and group research regarding supply chain sustainability, resilience and risk theories, thereby exposing you to enquiry-based learning which informs your interactive seminars and assessment.