SUPPLY CHAIN CONNECTIONS
NEWSLETTER SPRING 2018
SUPPLY CHAIN CLUB The Supply Chain Management Club aims to provide members with a real-world perspective on industry operations and strategies. The club facilitates the CSCA and Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification exams, hosts industry speakers, and tours companies that excel in supply chain management. All of this is done to build relationships with local companies and connect more students with employment opportunities. This spring, the club hosted a discussion with the supply chain forum partners from Arrow Electronics, Woodward Inc., and Advanced Energy Industries. The club gained valuable knowledge from these professionals as well as networking opportunities. Club members also had the pleasure of touring the Staples Fulfillment Center in Brighton, Colorado, where students were able to see Kiva robots in action. The tour enabled students to see a variety of supply chain practices in warehousing, and how these robots enhance efficiencies in the Staples network. The club has more exciting events on the horizon with speakers and tours in the coming weeks. The Certified Supply Chain Analyst Exam was April 7, and the Certified Lean & Six Sigma Yellow Belt Exam was April 21. Please contact the club President, Calvin Spond, at calvin.spond@rams.colostate.edu or the faculty advisor, Paul Vanderspek, at paul.vanderspek@business.colostate.edu if you are interested in participating in any events, hosting tours, or have questions.
STUDENT CASE COMPETITIONS For the 12th straight year, the CSU College of Business competed in the Denver Transportation Club’s Operations Stimulus Student Supply Chain case competition. This year, the college was represented by Keegan Black, Kate White, Han Pham, and Josh Tomlinson. Twenty universities competed this year, the most ever. Schools were divided into five pools and the winners of each advanced to the finals. Our team competed against Syracuse, Palo Alto College and Western Michigan, with Palo Alto College winning the competition. This year’s case challenged students to develop an effective sourcing and logistics plan for a series of hardware products, with sourcing options from all around the globe. Students paid particular attention to North American port selection and logistics from the port to the firm’s mid-western distribution center hubs. Once again, travel to this event was made possible by generous support from our Supply Chain Forum sponsor companies. Thank you for your continued support of our program.
ORACLE FUTURE SUPPLY CHAIN LEADERS The College of Business had the opportunity to nominate two students for this program held in January as part of a larger supply chain conference on the latest information technology trends. Reagan Travis and Calvin Spond were selected to attend, and CSU was one of only 17 schools represented. “As students, we had the opportunity to meet many Oracle representatives and well as vendors and customers of Oracle’s Cloud Solution. It was inspiring to see how technology and tools could help mitigate the risks companies face while also providing solutions to their ongoing supply chain challenges. A highlight from the trip and a wonderful takeaway was the opportunity to form relationships with the companies as well as the fellow students,” said Reagan.
SCM FORUM UPDATE Our partner-hosted day was co-sponsored by Envirofit and Woodward on March 1. Twenty one representatives from AEI, Otter Products, Woordward, Envirofit, and CSU spent a few hours learning about Envirofit and their trade-management issues. The group also shared ideas on supply chain skills and involving suppliers in product roadmaps and sales inventory operations planning in roundtable discussions. Each partner-hosted day has been a success as each has brought something new to our partner and student interactions. We look forward to more hosted events!
We welcomed new practicum partner, New Belgium Brewing Company, to the forum this spring. More than 50 people attended the Supply Chain Management Forum spring meeting on April 3, which focused on trade management in the supply chain. Melanie Fujiu from ULA, Susan Pfuetze from Otter Products, and Cindy Pitrat from AEI shared their perspectives on trade compliance issues. Our keynote was Roy Becker who spoke about trade finance. We also discussed exposure to these types of issues for our students and the impact of trade-policy changes on partners’ supply chains. The partner spotlight featured New Belgium and their practicum team. Many continued their interactions during the reception at the end of the day.
The internal case competition teams presented their solutions at the forum, and the partners judged their performances. There was tie for first place (teams are shown in the photos). They will both be listed on the annual Bill Shuster Award for Outstanding Performance. Our fall forum on managing and securing big data will be Wednesday, November 7, and we hope to welcome some new partners in the fall.
OTHER SCM UPDATES The SCM Program Concentration enrollments continue to grow, up 44 percent. We now have 152 current students and have graduated 98 students (with another 33 expected this semester) since the concentration began in Fall 2014. We are raising funding to add additional faculty and classes as this growth continues, and our forum partners will play a role in this. We recently received approval for an experimental course offering a global SCM experience in Lima, Peru. Ten students (7 undergraduates and 3 MBA students) will travel Lima in August to meet with various SCM companies, tour the port, interact with university students, and experience the culture. This course is supported by the SCM forum. The CSU SCM faculty were ranked #20 among all SCM programs based on research output of the faculty in the 2018 SCM Journal List ranking! We are a small research faculty (only four of us conducting research) as compared to other schools ahead of us, and we are the only program in our geographic area. If you would like more information about the SCM Forum or the program, please contact Susan Golicic at susan.golicic@business.colostate.edu. Join the group “CSU SCM� to connect with the program on LinkedIn where we post discussions, events and jobs.
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