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ELE 3783 Sustainable Risk Management in Value Chains

ELE 3783 Sustainable Risk Management in Value Chains

Course code: 
ELE 3783
Department: 
Accounting and Operations Management
Credits: 
7.5
Course coordinator: 
Kim van Oorschot
Course name in Norwegian: 
Sustainable Risk Management in Value Chains
Product category: 
Bachelor
Portfolio: 
Bachelor - Electives
Semester: 
2024 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Bachelor
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

Background

Risk management in value chains, often termed supply chain risk management has been one of the fastest growing research streams within operations and supply chain management in recent years. Today’s turbulent environment makes this topic no less important. The global COVID-19 pandemic, the rush to reopen the economy from lockdown, Brexit, the blockage in the Suez Canal, the war in Ukraine and the increased focus on environmental sustainability have exposed many issues in value chains related to risk and uncertainties, potentially leading to a lack of resilience. Challenges relate to coping with complexity and uncertainty. For example, globalization means that today’s value chains often cross not only organizational boundaries, but also national borders, including many tiers and long lead times. These challenges highlight the need for collaborative and sustainable strategies, not to mention techniques and tools to understand, identify, visualize, quantify and reduce risk in value chains.

Objective and expectations

The objective of the course is to provide students with insights into the challenges and ways of dealing with sustainable risk management in value chains. This includes competence in applying frameworks for identifying, assessing, mitigating, and responding to value chain risks in a variety of different contexts, and appreciation of sustainability perspectives and challenges, including the sustainable development goals (SDG), environmental, social and governance (ESG) and circular economy issues related to managing risk.

The course combines theory, practical examples, and interactional learning, and students are expected to actively participate through work requirements (a-synchronized homework assignments), and discussions in class (synchronized assignments in class).

Learning outcomes - Knowledge

During the course students shall gain knowledge of:

  • Value chain risk management in general and how it relates to sustainability perspectives and frameworks
  • Challenges and applications of strategies, tools, and techniques in different contexts for preparing and responding to risks, and how to report on this
  • Key stakeholders in sustainable risk management in value chains
Learning outcomes - Skills

After completed course students shall be able to:

  • Apply value chain risk concepts and frameworks in different contexts
  • Communicate how value chain risk management is practiced in different contexts
  • Use decision-support tools in value chain risk management
  • Apply sustainability concepts (like SDG and ESG) in value chain risk management
General Competence
  • Communicate effectively with other stakeholders involved in the value chain about risk management
  • Reflect upon the impacts of risk management on sustainability challenges in the value chain
  • Know where to find relevant scientific literature about the topic
  • Be a reflective and ethical professional
Course content

This course is structured in five modules or themes, which will be discussed separately in class. The course will also cover relationships between them. The course will cover the following modules:

  • Module 1: Value chains
  • Module 2: Risk management
  • Module 3: Sustainability
  • Module 4: Decision support tools (tools that help bridging these different modules)
  • Module 5: Sustainable risk management in value chains (combining all modules)

Subjects discussed within each module include:

Module 1: Value Chains

  1. What is a value chain?
  2. Managing value by bridging supply and demand – value chain management
  3. Lean vs. agile supply chains

Module 2: Risk Management

Overall framework - Identifying, assessing, mitigating, and responding to risks.

  1. Risks and uncertainties in the chain – abnormal and normal risks
  2. Risk mitigation strategies – designing the chain
  3. Collaboration across organizational/sectorial boundaries

Module 3: Sustainability

  1. Introduction to the SDG and ESG frameworks and a discussion about the impact of these frameworks on strategy, decision-making, and value chain risk management
  2. Introduction to the circular economy and circular business models and their relationships with sustainability
  3. Challenges with circular economy

Module 4: Decision support tools

Causal loop diagramming: visualizing relationships in systems and discovering feedback structures in systems (like value chains)

Module 5: Sustainable Risk Management in Value Chains 

  1. Sustainable risk management in value chains and ISO 31000: resilience engineering; recording and reporting; assessment, identification and treatment
  2. Application of decision support tools in sustainable risk management in value chains: practical case study / company project combining all course elements
Teaching and learning activities

The course is taught by a diverse set of lecturers who will present and discuss key concepts and frameworks and how these concepts and frameworks are used in practice. During and in-between lectures several practical cases will be discussed in class or in small groups.

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Additional information

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Qualifications

Higher Education Entrance Qualification

Disclaimer

Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.

Required prerequisite knowledge

This elective will build on relevant aspects of the core courses in (BI's) bachelor programme(s). This means there is no required prerequisite knowledge.

Mandatory courseworkCourseworks givenCourseworks requiredComment coursework
Mandatory 32 During the course, students will need to hand-in three individual written homework assignments. These assignments will be evaluated with approved/not approved. Only students that get minimum two assignments approved can take the final home exam.
Mandatory coursework:
Mandatory coursework:Mandatory
Courseworks given: 3
Courseworks required:2
Comment coursework: During the course, students will need to hand-in three individual written homework assignments. These assignments will be evaluated with approved/not approved. Only students that get minimum two assignments approved can take the final home exam.
Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Weight: 
100
Grouping: 
Individual
Duration: 
5 Hour(s)
Comment: 
Home exam
Exam code: 
ELE 37831
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
42 Hour(s)
42 hours divided in 14 lectures (2 synchronized hours and 1 asynchronized)
Student's own work with learning resources
80 Hour(s)
Prepare for teaching
30 Hour(s)
Submission(s)
25 Hour(s)
Examination
23
The exam will not take 23 hours to complete, but it is expected that students want to catch up on some reading to prepare for the exam
Sum workload: 
200

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 7,5 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 200 hours.