Design, Technology & Business

Value Chain Management is a 3 ½-year bachelor degree in English, which focuses on process understanding from a business point of view. The students acquire the skills to supervise the entire value chain from raw material to the final product offered to the customers as well as the ability to create maximum value for the company. The programme includes a 5-month work placement period within the 5th semester.

Find more information about the programme’s content here; viauc.com/value

The student’s skills depend on the choice of elective courses within the programme. The following list provides examples of work tasks that a student on the Value Chain Management programme can help solve during a work placement:

- Participate actively in purchasing – find new potential suppliers - Conduct warehouse optimisation - conduct ABC analysis - Participate in the planning of production and shipping - Apply MPS systems within the company - Analyse the supply chain and be active in production and process optimisation projects - Optimise quality control within the company - Perform and implement LEAN analysis - Conduct estimates and forecasts - Manage small projects across the company’s departments - Participate in planning and execution of strategic situational analysis (external and internal) - Participate in planning and execution of customer and competitor analysis - Participate in the development of a marketing plan

Work placement Specialisation + Bachelor

1st semester 2nd semester 3rd semester 4th semester 5th semester 6th semester 7th semester

The books teach you a lot and so does the projects during the study, however experience is only gained by working in the real world. My work placement period at LEGO has taught me a lot in terms of finding the right way to approach a task and address the different people you meet at your workplace. I have also experienced that reality is much more complex than the theories in the books, especially in a big company like LEGO. By navigating in a complex environment I have become more effective in approaching new tasks.

Henrik Berg Jepsen Graduate Value Chain Management

Design, Technology & Business is a 2-year study programme with seven different areas of specialisation aimed at the fashion and lifestyle industry:

- Branding & Marketing

Management - Purchasing

Management - Retail Design &

Management - Fashion Design - Furniture Design - Pattern Design - Visual Fashion

Communication

Find more information about the programme’s content here: viauc.com/ design-business

On the 1st semester all students from Design, Technology & Business take the same basic courses and projects across areas of specialisation. This means that design students also have business courses and students on the business areas of specialisation have design courses. The overlap ensures that there is a mutual understanding and cooperation between design and business students already from the beginning of the education.

From 2nd until 4th semester the students follow their areas of specialisation and take courses and projects on the topic of their area. On the 3rd semester, the students have a 2-3 month work placement. The work placement can be in connection to the students’ areas of specialisation; however, the students can also be involved in the company’s various operations, including activities in relation to the value chain.

The following lists contain examples of tasks that a Design, Technology & Business student from the different areas of specialisation can solve during a work placement period:

- Collect, analyse and estimate market data - Evaluate the market potential of a concept or product on the basis of internal and external analysis - Work market-oriented according to the company’s values and in relation to the customers’ needs - Communicate about marketing processes nationally and internationally - Participate in optimising the company’s supply according to the market’s demand - Deal with launching new products and concepts - Develop and implement a marketing plan nationally and internationally - Develop and implement a social media strategy

- Develop proposals for a supplier evaluation form - Develop proposals for various forms and spreadsheet tools - Calculate delivery costs for products and shipments - Find new potential suppliers in a given country or region - Evaluate suppliers - Help building electronic supplier directory and run the sample approval, including contacting the suppliers - Quality control of goods - Create and maintain data in the company’s management systems (e.g. Navision)

- Contribute to store concept development, including performing small-scale research tasks and collecting data from stores, users, rationales, competitors and the market in general - Tasks within channel development such as developing and updating the store’s website - Store Check analysis - Store opening - activities, planning and budget - Retail operations - the store’s value chain and its optimisation - Sales activities in a store - content, time schedule, budget and follow-up - Execution of visual merchandising plan in a store

- Briefing, concept development, sketching, presentation and development work - Research and development of inspirational materials - Preparation of draft proposals - Drawing work such as sketch drawing and computer drawing in e.g. Photoshop,

Illustrator, InDesign,

Rhino and V-Ray - Preparation of proposals for design products, including designing the form and giving the details - Preparation of presentations for colors and materials - Preparation of models or prototypes