Professional Development Seminars
The need for continuous improvement, including personal improvement, is a never-ending journey. The CVCR’s Professional Development Seminars can help with this pursuit by addressing topics that are relevant to today’s managers and executives. Taught by experts from Lehigh and beyond, these seminars offer a way to create immediate value for individuals and companies.
CVCR member companies receive discounted pricing.
For more information, please contact us.
Upcoming Seminars:
Creating a Lean Supply Chain
April 13-14, 2012 Cost: $395 |
| Instructor: | Robert J. Trent, Co-Director, Center for Value Chain Research, Lehigh University |
Creating a Lean Supply Chain addresses how to apply lean principles up and down the supply chain from your supplier’s supplier to your customer’s customer. While not ignoring the importance of internal operations, an end-to-end view is much more expansive because it spans the entire chain. It also considers a wider set of wastes than the traditional view of Lean and stresses a broader set of measures, tools, and approaches for applying Lean principles and thinking.
Almost all experts still view Lean in the traditional context of internal manufacturing operations. And while an internal focus is important, it ignores the opportunities that reside upstream and downstream from a company. Furthermore, a strict focus on manufacturing ignores the opportunity to apply Lean in other industries and even functional groups, including health care, transportation, distribution, retailing, financial services, and even office operations and engineering.
This course is offered in conjunction with the College of Business and Economics Graduate Programs office.
Co-sponsored by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

Supply Chain Finance: The Inevitable Merger
| May 17, 2012 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Room 85, Rauch Business Center, Lehigh University 621 Taylor St, Bethlehem, PA 18015 Cost: $395 |
| Instructors: | Robert J. Trent, Co-Director, Center for Value Chain Research, Lehigh University |
| Samuel Weaver, Finance Professor of Practice, Lehigh University |
The need for supply chain managers to speak the language of financial managers is a steadily growing one. Conversely, the need for financial managers to appreciate the role that supply chain managers play should not be discounted. This program presents major topics associated with supply chain management, identifies a set of best supply chain practices, and explores the related finance concepts and topics that support supply chain activities and decision making. The instructors use lecture, readings, exercises, and cases to integrate supply chain applications and finance applications. The following illustrates the flow of this course:
| Supply Chain Topic | Related Finance Topics | Integrative Exercises |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluating and selecting world-class suppliers | Analyzing supplier financial statements |
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| Managing inventory investment effectively | Managing working capital |
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| Managing costs across the supply chain, including how to create a lean supply chain | Calculating return on net assets Using the DuPont model to evaluate cost scenarios |
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| Sourcing internationally | Hedging currency and material costs and risk |
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| Developing supplier performance capabilities | Calculating internal rate of return, payback, ROI, and NPV |
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Co-sponsored by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

Past Seminars:
Supply Chain Finance: The Inevitable Merger
| Instructors: | Robert J. Trent, Co-Director, Center for Value Chain Research, Lehigh University |
| Samuel Weaver, Finance Professor of Practice, Lehigh University |
Six Sigma Program Management and Methodology
| Instructor: | Richard Titus, Principal, Titus Consulting and Instructor, Lehigh University |
Straight to the Bottom Line ®: How Leading Companies Win through Supply Management
| Instructor: | Robert A. Rudzki, President, Greybeard Advisors LLC |
