Friday 18 June, the annual Scientific Committee meeting for the MSc Logistics, Supply Chain & Project Management took place at SKEMA to update and validate the MSc’s curriculum and programme courses. The Scientific Committee plays a vital role: these well-placed professionals keep the MSc precisely in line with the latest needs of the job market and industry.

The Committee includes the director of Galia, the inventory and planning manager of IBM, the director of logistics at Kone, the supply chain manager from Thales Underwater Systems, the global supply chain director of Façonnable, and the global direct procurement director from Dow Corning Europe, the supply chain director of Schneider Electrics and an Ernst & Young advisor as well as the relevant SKEMA professors.

Arnaud Dugeay, the director of Logistics at Kone, said afterwards “This MSc’s programme is fine-tuned to correspond exactly to the needs of companies. Students get just the right balance of specifically relevant knowledge as well as the practical competencies necessary to be productive managers from the first day on the job.”

The committee members propose changes to the MSc programme based on their professional experiences and knowledge – as recruiters themselves – of the exact skills companies require in the graduates they hire. The aim is to make sure graduates have the competencies required by industry now and in the future

Among the Committee’s decisions: students will spend more time on Risk Management as the exposure of supply chains to risks is becoming ever more apparent as the years go by (the financial crisis, SARS, Bird Flu, 9/11, the Icelandic volcano). Also, students will spend more time on Lean Six Sigma. The Committee noted that competences in these subjects was being demanded of graduates by recruiters, and that other MScs in Supply Chain Management may often be lacking in these areas.

The Committee decided to further embed the practice of project management into the MSc; project management principles will be integrated into the second term’s MMOG/LE Galia project.

Jean Iker, the Dow Corning global direct procurement director who had travelled from Belgium to make it to the meeting on the Sophia Antipolis campus, said "It is very refreshing to find a school offering a Supply Chain and Logistics program. In the future we will be able to recruit people who not only understand what 'Supply Chain' means but who will have a deep understanding of the fundamentals, backed up by hands-on training in leading companies."