The COVID-19 pandemic exposed critical weaknesses in global supply chains, revealing how unprepared many industries were to manage large-scale disruptions. As operational failures rippled across sectors, the importance of supply chain risk management (SCRM) became unmistakable. Yet, in many undergraduate programs, introductory supply chain management (SCM) courses still omit structured instruction on risk mitigation, leaving students with a knowledge gap at a time when resilience is a competitive necessity.
Traditional SCM curricula emphasize core concepts—procurement, logistics, inventory control—but often sidestep the analytical and strategic tools required to anticipate and respond to disruptions. Standard textbooks rarely dedicate substantial coverage to SCRM frameworks, despite the growing frequency of geopolitical shocks, environmental events, and technological vulnerabilities affecting global networks.
To address this gap, one instructor redesigned an undergraduate SCM course in fall 2020 to integrate SCRM principles without sacrificing foundational content. The approach relied on a structured pedagogical framework enriched by collaboration with Kinaxis, a company recognized for enabling supply chain agility and resilience. Kinaxis had recently launched an academic program offering universities access to guest lectures, case studies, and industry events, providing students with exposure to current practices and tools used by leading firms.
The redesigned course began by embedding risk-focused discussions into every class session. Students first learned a core SCM concept, followed by an exploration of associated risks, using short videos and topical news from the “OM in the News” platform. This format encouraged active participation and helped students link theoretical knowledge to real-world vulnerabilities. Discussions could be held live or extended through the learning management system to sustain engagement.
Kinaxis also hosted a virtual event that students attended, featuring customer testimonials on navigating supply chain challenges during the pandemic. These sessions illustrated how companies applied SCRM strategies—leveraging artificial intelligence, human expertise, concurrent planning, and digitization—to maintain operations and profitability. Students who submitted concise synopses of the sessions received extra credit, reinforcing attentive participation.
A guest lecture from a Kinaxis industry leader provided another layer of practical insight. The speaker addressed resilience strategies, shared experiences in managing supply chain risks, and highlighted career paths in the field. Students valued the opportunity to connect prior class discussions with professional perspectives, gaining a clearer sense of how academic concepts translate into operational decisions.
The curriculum also incorporated a Kinaxis-developed case study examining a real disruption scenario. This exercise required students to apply SCRM strategies to assess visibility gaps, evaluate concurrent planning methods, and propose solutions. Its direct relevance to pandemic-era challenges heightened student interest and fostered deeper analytical engagement.
For the final project, students selected a recent supply chain issue from news or scholarly sources, analyzed the affected industry or company, and proposed mitigation strategies grounded in SCRM methodologies. This assignment demanded synthesis of course content with independent research, encouraging critical thinking and problem-solving aligned with professional practice.
Feedback from course evaluations and informal surveys indicated that students gained a solid understanding of SCRM concepts and valued the authenticity of industry-provided materials. Interactions with practitioners, whether through virtual events or guest lectures, were cited as particularly impactful in illustrating the stakes and complexities of supply chain decision-making.
The framework demonstrated that integrating SCRM into undergraduate SCM courses is both feasible and beneficial when supported by targeted industry collaboration. By anchoring lessons in current, practice-based examples, students not only grasped theoretical constructs but also developed the applied skills needed to navigate an increasingly volatile global supply environment. For engineering-minded learners, such exposure parallels the systems-thinking approach found in aerospace, automotive, and robotics disciplines, where anticipating and mitigating risk is as critical as optimizing performance.