Supply Chain

Supply chain management is one of the fastest growing and most influential areas within industrial engineering and operations research, and UC Berkeley IEOR faculty members are some of the world's leading supply chain management experts. Researchers in the department are actively exploring a variety of approaches to integrating and optimizing various operational, tactical and strategic decisions in large-scale supply chains, and are developing techniques to help managers deal with the uncertainty inherent in the real world. Faculty members work closely with industrial researchers and managers in industries ranging from semiconductor manufacturing to biopharmaceutical production.

Fierce competition in today's global markets, the introduction of products with shorter and shorter life cycles, and the heightened expectations of customers have forced business enterprises to invest in, and focus attention on, their supply chains. This, together with continuing advances in communications and transportation technologies has motivated the continuous evolution of the supply chain and of the techniques to manage it. This is truly an exciting time for the research and practice of supply chain management, and UC Berkeley is a leader in this area.

Current research projects here at Berkeley cover a vast array of different supply chain management related topics. Some of the questions we are actively trying to answer include:

• How can distribution and production decisions be integrated effectively in the supply chain?
• How should delivery dates be promised to customers so that supply chains operate effectively, and these due dates are met?
• How can auctions and online markets be used effectively in supply chains?
• How should competition be accounted for when supply chains are designed?
• How does forecasting impact supply chains?
• How should semiconductor manufacturing firms make capacity investment decisions?
• What are the important issues faced by biotechnology firms in the operation of their supply chains?

In addition, IEOR department faculty give frequent supply chain management-related lectures to important industrial and managerial organizations throughout the world, and have written the most widely-used and influential supply chain management textbooks.