INTRODUCTION

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE INDEXED FIRMS AND TOP 50 SUPPLY CHAIN FIRMS

BASIC ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES

SUPPLY CHAIN CLASSIFICATIONS

TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED IN THE CLASSROOM

EVIDENCE OF EFFECTIVENESS AND ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

CONCLUDING REMARKS

REFERENCES

ABSTRACT

Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) courses may cover supply chain strategies, supply chain classification, and supply chain performance. Familiarity with various manufacturing and logistics firms would help students to better understand such topics. Information on the Dow Jones Industrial Average indexed firms and top 50 supply chain firms by Gartner is easily accessible and typically covers a variety of industries from chemical, food/beverage, high-tech to retail, to name a few. Instructors of OSCM courses can take advantage of this kind of information to discuss industry characteristics and supply chain classification. We present how to collect financial data, calculate supply chain metrics (e.g., inventory turns, profit margin, and cash-to-cash cycle) by building a spreadsheet model and creating an earns-turns matrix, which prescribes supply chain classification. We also show how to analyze supply chain performance and describe industry characteristics based on the earns-turns matrix. We provide vital questions and takeaways for instructors to lead and wrap-up discussions. Students claim that they appreciated learning about industry characteristics and different supply chain strategies through the earns-turns matrix analysis.

INTRODUCTION

Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) courses typically cover operations and supply chain strategies, demand management, sales and operations planning, production planning and scheduling, inventory control, material/capacity requirement planning, and so forth. Quantitative approaches such as linear regression or linear programming have been used to address such topics. Accounting concepts also help students understand value chain activities across the supply chain, which deals with the flow of product/service, information, and funds. An income statement reflects primary and supportive activities across the value chain (see the detailed description in the third section). However, integration among supply chain and accounting, cost structure of different industries, and supply chain classification and strategy based on financial ratios have rarely been discussed, to the best of our knowledge, in OSCM courses or textbooks. Recently, a few textbooks have placed emphasis on the interface between OSCM and accounting/finance (Cachon & Terwiesch 2004, Chopra & Meindl 2014).