The Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute (SCL) offers online versions of its entire Supply Chain Management Series, allowing busy executives to study course material at their own pace and schedule, while avoiding the travel costs generally associated with training.

Designed for logistics professionals from across the entire supply chain, the series includes four courses:

--World-Class Inventory Planning and Management. Inventory availability is the most important aspect of customer service, and inventory carrying costs are typically the most expensive and riskiest aspect of logistics and supply chain management. In this course, participants learn how to manage inventories more effectively in order to increase fill rates and inventory turns.

--World-Class Logistics and Supply Chain Strategy. World-class logistics systems improve customer service, reduce operating expenses, and minimize capital investments. In this course, participants will learn how to develop a comprehensive supply chain strategy to improve business performance.

--World-Class Transportation and Distribution . Driven by more frequent and increasingly time-definite shipments, complex security and regulatory requirements, increased fuel and labor costs, and severe shortages in labor and capacity, transportation management has become a critical corporate function. In this course, participants learn how to interpret shipment activity, optimize routes, and manage total transportation for better service and reduced logistics costs.

--World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling . Warehousing minimizes the effects of supply chain inefficiencies, improves logistics accuracy and inventory management, and allows product accumulation, consolidation, and customization. This course focuses on ways to design warehouses to maximize supply chain efficiency and benchmark warehouse performance.

These courses can be taken individually or as part of a certificate program. Participants who complete all four courses will qualify for the Supply Chain & Logistics Certificate. By the end of the series, attendees will have received a broad but intense education covering:

*Customer service and order processing
*Inventory planning and management
*Supply chain integration and transportation
*Warehousing
*Distribution
*Logistics performance measures
*Benchmarking procedures
*Logistics information systems architecture
and implementation
*Third-party logistics strategies
*Logistics organization design

"This online learning experience was a great way to expand into every aspect of logistics, and I was able to complete it at my own pace," said Mark Lamarre, manufacturing manager at Raytheon. "It was straightforward and informative, not trying to be harder than it really is with tricky questions on the exams, like other programs I have done."

The series is taught by Edward Frazelle, PhD, who is known by his students for putting "logic back into logistics."

Each course is divided into nine to twelve sections with an online quiz at the end of each section.

"The online format is perfect for the busy professional as it affords them the flexibility to progress though the course material at their own pace," said Frazelle, author of the book Supply Chain Strategy. "Our online participants have the option of starting and stopping a course as often as they like as long as they complete the course within a twelve-month period."

Online course materials are presented using streaming video presentations synchronized with PowerPoint slides, extensive course notes, and photo galleries that highlight the operation of important logistics systems. The series is offered through a WebCT interface in a point-and-click format. It can be accessed from anywhere, by anyone capable of using a Web browser such as Internet Explorer.

For an online course demo, visit www.scl.gatech.edu/online.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of Industrial & Systems Engineering, the alumni magazine of the Stewart School of ISyE.