Logistics and Supply Chain Management Workshop

Hello everyone, my name is Chawin Thanasakkosol. You can call me “A” if you want. I’m one of Communication Representatives in Red Stream for the 2015/2016 Full-time MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Cranfield University’s School of Management. It’s been almost a month since classes started, so let me share my awesome experience here with you.

In this university, I have learnt many things from quality lecturers and, moreover, from experiences of my friends with different backgrounds. That’s why I always enjoy class discussions. In addition, Cranfield’s teaching style is different from my country. It encourages our participation in class, as well as having various workshops for us to gain hands-on experience. These workshops enhance our understanding to logistics concepts and are very practical.

Since last week, I had attended in 4 workshops which were fun and useful. First workshop was a role play under topic of collaboration. The background was that there were 3 companies having their troubles with unbalance benefits. The solution was to get them together and collaborate to obtain greater benefits. With this, each learning team were assigned as one of the company. And then, they’d have to discuss professionally in a collaborative way which would allow them to achieve win-win situation. First, we didn’t come to an agreement as everyone wanted to get the most benefits. However, after discussion, we found the solution that make us happy together. We learnt about methods in negotiation and collaboration.

Another workshop was Toyota Production System workshop. We got a case from Harvard Business Review about the insights of Toyota’s production system, which lead Toyota to being the world’s top operational manufacturer. Within the 2-hours class, questions were given to us, one on each team to answer and prepare for a presentation in front of the class. As a result, we now have a deep understanding of Toyota’s production system.

TPS Workshop 1

TPS Workshop 2

The third workshop was in computer lab. It was an Excel class. In this class, they taught us about excel functions which could be used in terms of statistics and probability. These 2 areas play important roles in logistics and supply chain management. They act as a tool which provides useful information for decision making in logistical terms.

The last one was called Just in Time Game (JIT Game).  The JiT concept we learnt in class was converted into a game. This way, with simple methods, we got a chance to see and understand how JiT practically works. The class started with an unmanaged factory. Each of us was positioned as a worker inside the plant. As we ran the game, we realized there were many problems with how the factory was managed. We brainstormed, applied theories we learnt in class, and did trial and errors to test out our hypotheses. In the end, even though, we still had deficit income, but wastes were reduced and the factory became leaner. The game was very fun an educative, as it was practical and we gained direct experience from it.

MPS Team

Assembly Team and Material Handler

Heat Treatment and Warehouse Team

Benny taught us about how to eliminate wastes in manufacturing process