Companies-manufacturers have to deal with demand and supply uncertainties. They need to adjust to changing customer needs and to be able to pass new quality requirements through the supply chain. Even if suppliers' performance is satisfactory in stable environment, they can behave differently in dynamic situation. Some suppliers can fail to meet new quality requirements or even quit the supply chain. Underestimation of suppliers' motivation can lead to loss of sales, customers, and can face the situation of need of new supplier search. The goal of this paper is to highlight an importance of consideration of informal factors in relationships with supply chain and to discuss a methodology of approach to predict high risk suppliers for changing quality requirements.

is an Senior Lecturer of Operations Management. She teaches several courses including courses on Lean Practice in Operations Management. She has several years of industry experience as an advanced development engineer and has served as a consultant to industry for over 10 years.

She has over five years of college teaching work experience in Operations Management and Supply Chain Management fields. Her industry experience is an analyst-consultant in business processes improvement area for manufacturing companies and a deputy head of a customer service department in a leading 3PL full service logistics company in the Russian and CIS logistics market. Problem-Based Learning in a Supply Chain Management Course AbstractThe paper illustrates different applications of problem-based learning in junior/senior level Supply Chain Management (SCM) course and the effect of the problem-based learning environment on achieving students learning objective for the course. Sipes' Problem-Based Curriculum Matrix, which combines Barrows' Taxonomy of teaching methods with Jonassen's Problem Typology, was used as a tool. The tool helps enumerate the different types of problembased learning (PBL) techniques that were used in the course. The tool illustrated that the course used more PBL the second time it was taught. Outcomes of teaching the SCM course in two semesters were compared by class average grade, grade distribution, students' perception of the level of challenge in their work on a design project, and IDEA teaching evaluation scores from students. The paper will explain the process used and show the results from the first and second time the course was taught.

The goal of the research is to develop a methodology to minimize the public's exposure to harmful emissions from coal power plants while maintaining minimal operational costs related to electric distribution losses and coal logistics. The objective is achieved by combining EPA Screen3, ISC3 and Japanese METI-LIS model equations with minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm. Prim's MST algorithm is used to simulate an electric distribution system and coal transportation pathways. The model can detect emission interaction with another source and estimate the ground level concentrations of emissions up to distances of 25 kilometers. During a grid search, the algorithm helps determine a candidate location, for a new coal power plant, that would minimize the operational cost while ensuring emission exposure is below the EPA/NIOSH thresholds. The proposed methodology has been coded in form of a location analysis simulation. An exhaustive search strategy delivers a final candidate location for a new coal power plant to ensure minimum operational costs as compared to the random or greedy search strategy. The simulation provides a tool to industrial zone planners, environmental engineers, and stakeholders in coal-based power generation. Using operational and emissions perspectives, the tool helps ascertain a list of compromise locations for a new coal power plant facility.

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