Advanced Seminar Operations & Supply Chain Management (WIB22964): Logistics and Supply Chain Management
(Prof. Dr. Stefan Minner, Till Krieger, Yuxuan Zhu)
Kick-off meeting: October 15, 2025
Topic
The Advanced Seminar in Winter Semester 2025/26 focuses on Human-AI Interaction in Supply Chain Management. Students can choose between two research streams:
- Behavioral patterns in Human-AI Interaction within Supply Chain related scenarios
Cognitive biases (e.g., pull-to-center, risk aversion) have been a major drawback of decision-making quality in various supply chain management-related scenarios. This topic investigates how these biases may shift when humans interact with generative AI tools (e.g., large language models), and conversely, how biases inherent in Gen-AI agents themselves may influence decision outcomes. The study aims to assess the impact of such behavioral shifts on overall efficiency and performance in specific supply chain scenarios. Participants are expected to conduct a comprehensive literature review, design and execute a small-scale experiment involving Gen-AI agents, and analyze the behavioral outcomes.
Gen-AI tools in solving Supply Chain Related Optimization Problems
Modern generative AI tools, such as large language models, demonstrate an emerging capability to comprehend and respond to basic operations research (OR) problems—including linear programming and related formulations—even without extensive prompt engineering. This topic explores the feasibility and effectiveness of deploying Gen-AI agents to solve specific supply chain-related OR problems, with a focus on solution quality, interpretability, and scalability. Students will review relevant literature on AI-assisted optimization, implement a Gen-AI-based agent (e.g., using platforms like Dify), and apply it to a well-defined supply chain scenario.
Registration
Please note: The registration for the seminars of the TUM School of Management is now done via TUMonline, and no longer uses the seminar placement tool.
Prerequisite: One course in the field of Operations & Supply Chain Management and the MOS course.
Introduction
In this advanced seminar, participants will explore cutting-edge topics within the domain of Human-AI Interaction in SCM. More details will follow soon.
Course description
We will provide suggested research topics/questions within the domain of Human-AI Interaction in SCM. Each student is expected to produce a 15-20 page seminar paper that identifies a key issue related to their chosen topic and proposes viable solutions. The course structure includes a kick-off meeting, regular mentoring sessions, and final presentations. During the kick-off meeting, we will outline the seminar’s objectives, expectations, and deadlines, along with discussions on what constitutes a strong seminar paper. Writing tips and potential topics will also be provided. Each participant will receive individualized mentoring and coaching from a team advisor. Throughout the seminar, participants will learn to critically assess recent research, develop and explore pertinent research questions, conduct both literature and empirical studies, and effectively communicate their findings.
Learning objectives
The objective of the seminar is to equip the participants with the necessary skill and tools for a successful master thesis project (examples see here).
Specifically, the aim is to
- Read and understand recent research contributions
- Pursue interesting research questions
- Conduct a literature study and numerical study and/or implementation
- Structure and organize research methods and results
- Write a seminar paper
- Present research findings and defend them in a discussion
Evaluation
- Seminar paper (including presentation and discussion): 100%
Important dates
- Kick-off: October 15, 2025
- Submission of topic preferences: October 19, 2025
- Research question, outline and table of contents: November 02, 2025
- First results on research question: November 30, 2025
- 15-20 pages paper (pdf format): January 18, 2026
- Presentations (30 min. + 15 min. discussion each): January 22 & 23, 2026