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Institute of Advanced Technological and Commercial Studies

Glossary

Supply chain: from supplier to end customer

The supply chain links suppliers, transport, storage, production and distribution. Steering it means holding three demands together: lead time, cost and availability. Each link carries its lead time, its cost and its risk of interruption.

One chain, several links

The supply chain covers all the physical, informational and financial flows that carry a product from supplier to end customer. Each link has a lead time, a cost and a risk of interruption. Steering means arbitrating between inventory, which secures but ties up cash, and lean flow, which frees capital and demands steady execution.

  • Physical flows, information flows and financial flows
  • Each link carries a lead time, a cost and a risk
  • Inventory secures service and ties up cash

The indicators that steer

The International Trade programme works upstream: sourcing, Incoterms, transit and customs clearance through to the quay. The Management and Project Management programme takes over on the steering side: supply milestones, workload planning and trade-offs when a link runs late.

flows to hold together: physical, information, financial
3
competency blocks in the logistics manager qualification
5
taught on that qualification
800 h
taught on the logistics and transit officer qualification
700 h

Programmes that have you steer it

2 catalogue programmes put “Supply chain” to work: 240 credits and 2400 taught hours in total. The official rule holds throughout — one credit stands for 25 hours of work, 10 of them taught. Every line below is recomputed from the programme page: level, duration, credits, taught volume and fees in Guinean francs appear exactly as filed in the official catalogue.

ProgrammeLevelDurationVolumeFees
International TradeBachelor's degree2 years120 credits · 1200 taught hours5 000 000 GNF per year
Management and Project Management programme — Bac+5 levelMaster's degree2 years120 credits · 1200 taught hours6 500 000 GNF per year

Your questions, our answers

Which professional qualification targets this field?

Several, from logistics and transit officer to supply chain director, depending on the level of responsibility held.

Is a technical background needed?

Comfort with figures and spreadsheets is enough to start. The programme then installs the steering tools and indicators.

Is the subject taught in the Guinean context?

Yes: port clearance, regional transit and customs constraints are among the cases worked on.

Supply chain: from supplier to end customer — Glossary | IHETC — IHETC