Bridging the gap between supply chain management practice and curriculum: A location analytics exercise

Abstract

This teaching brief explores how and why location analytics should be taught in business schools using three objectives. First, an explanation is provided for the importance of including location analytics in the standard business school curriculum—especially in the field of supply chain management. Second, a lack of GIS-based location analytics methods in business school curricula is demonstrated. Third, a three-part location analytics exercise is introduced to contribute to the supply chain management curriculum. The proposed exercise utilizes the output of a GIS-based location analytics software (namely, Esri's ArcGIS Online) as the input for a location set covering problem that can be solved using an integer programming solver. The exercise can also be used as a stand-alone example of GIS in a supply chain management course. This teaching brief aims to (1) develop a new method to use in teaching location analytics in supply chain management and analytics courses and (2) bridge an important gap between supply chain management practice and curriculum.