Enhance your
opportunities
With a specialization in supply chain management from the
Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management
Gain expertise in a crucial business function, form close ties to other students and industry, and enhance your opportunities for meaningful internships and successful placement.
ﾂｻ What Is Supply Chain Management? The Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management is one of the leading programs in supply chain management in the nation. In addition to offering a highly regarded MBA in supply chain management, it offers a specialization in supply chain management to undergraduate business students of all majors.
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Supply chain management focuses on the movement of products, services, and information along the value chain. It is a critical focus for companies large and small, across industries from high tech to health care. Businesses are focused on integrating marketing, sourcing, production, and logistics窶馬ot only within the firm, but also with business partners and customers. People who understand supply chains are in high demand by leading companies worldwide.
ﾂｻ Learning About Supply Chain Management You can add the supply chain management specialization to your current undergraduate business major. To complete the specialization, take six required courses and one of three electives. Learn to think about the supply chain in an integrated business framework both in and outside the classroom from faculty and in an extensive applied learning program.
» Enhancing Internship and Job Prospects
Students enrolled in the supply chain management specialization consistently earn some of the highest salaries at the School of Business. The average full-time salary offered to members of the graduating class of 2007 with a supply chain management specialization was more than $47,000.
Some of the companies that offered students full-time and internship opportunities include: AT&T Best Buy Company Cerner Corporation First Supply Ford Motor Company Harley-Davidson Motor Company Kimberly-Clark Corporation Kohler Company Kohl’s Department Stores Miller Brewing Company Nestlé USA Sears Holding Corporation Target Corporation
Required Courses Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management Procurement and Supply Management Production Planning and Control Marketing Channels Logistics Management Supply Chain Business Process Management
Electives Marketing Research Retail Management Operations Research I The foundational course in the specialization curriculum is Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management. The course provides an understanding of the link between key business functions and explores how effective supply chain management can improve organizations’ performance to provide competitive advantage. The course includes an exciting web-based simulation project, where student teams compete in managing a high-tech company’s supply chain.
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» A Fun, Close-knit Community The Grainger Center provides each student with personalized career advising, as well as social events and learning activities. You will be connected—directly and personally—with an extensive network of industry executives, alumni, corporate partners, and faculty. You will attend monthly “lunch and learn” events with Center Director Verda Blythe, often meeting with guest speakers from industry to discuss current topics in supply chain management.
» Scholarship Opportunities A number of scholarships are available to students in the supply chain management specialization. For example, during her junior year, Lindsay Olthafer (BBA December 2007), received the 2007 R. Gene Richter Scholarship, a prestigious national award affiliated with the Institute for Supply Management. Lindsay received $5,000; an invitation to the 2007 ISM Annual International Conference in Las Vegas; and was assigned a senior-level executive mentor for her senior year, Greg Shoemaker, chief procurement officer with Hewlett-Packard.
» Industry Partnerships
Lindsay Olthafer and Grainger Center Director Verda Blythe at the ISM Annual International Conference in Las Vegas.
In addition to an extensive employer network, an Executive Advisory Board links the Grainger Center to industry, keeping the program at the forefront of business knowledge. Each year, three undergraduate students are chosen to represent the supply chain specialization at the Grainger Center’s annual Executive Advisory Board meeting. Students make short, formal presentations to the board and have the opportunity to network with high-level supply chain leaders. Some of the companies represented on the board include BASF, Cisco, Genzyme, W.W. Grainger, Inc., Harley-Davidson Motor Company, IBM, Johnson Controls, Motorola, and Procter & Gamble. 4
»Explore the supply chain for Procter & Gamble’s Liquid Tide® Marketing and Demand
Sourcing
Tide® is produced according to demand rather than according to forecasts. Risks of this strategy include potential shortages or stockouts if a large retailer runs a promotion without informing P&G. This risk is mitigated through communication and integration between customers and P&G sales, and with sophisticated information systems, vendor-managed inventory, and continuous replenishment strategies.
Raw Materials New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Missouri Packaging: Ohio, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, Indiana, and Louisiana
Production Production is the least complex part of the supply chain for Liquid Tide®. It is an essentially mix-and-pour process. Complexity may enter the supply chain if a retailer wants a particular mix of products for a promotion. For example, Target might specify mixed pallets of different formulations or scents (e.g., Tide Free®, 2X Ultra Tide®, Tide with Bleach®) or different P&G products (e.g., Crest toothpaste, Charmin bath tissue, Pantene hair care).
Bottle quality presents a source of risk to the supply chain. The plastic molds used to make bottles and caps are expensive to replace if they break or are damaged. This risk is mitigated by developing and maintaining close relationships with suppliers and by locating production facilities next to suppliers. Perfume: New Jersy Formic acid: Pennsylvania Alchohol: Texas Ammonium oxide: Missouri
Caps: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Alabama, Missouri
Labels: Indiana Bottles: Ohio, Alabama
Distribution
Train Truck
Liquid Tide® is transported from production facilities to either customer distribution centers or directly to retailers. Weather is an obvious and uncontrollable risk to on-time delivery. In addition, West Coast markets are further from the production site, so there are more risks associated with on-time delivery. Retailers on the West Coast mitigate this risk by carrying higher levels of inventory.
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Blake Hampton
» Student Profiles
Since graduating in May 2007 with an undergraduate degree in operations and technology management, and the supply chain management specialization, Annie has been working for Target Corporation as a supply chain executive in training. She is based in domestic transportation sourcing, where the team is responsible for carrier selection, negotiation, and relationship management. The rotational nature of the supply chain executive in training position allows her to spend time in various areas of distribution—including global trade services, vendor operations, and import transportation—before she settles into a permanent position.
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“My undergraduate supply chain background helped me become a valuable cross-functional partner with a variety of teams, specifically demand planning. My knowledge of processes, inventory theory, and overall supply chain analytics has given me a true advantage as a well-rounded member of the team. In addition to the regular responsibilities of my position, I have taken an active role as a member on a number of Six Sigma projects, providing business team buying insight. Recent achievements include spearheading a regional pricing initiative and developing a unique clearance pricing technique that has since saved the company over $2 million. I am having fun with the people I work with and the products Best Buy offers and can say that I love what I do for a for a living. The education I received at the Grainger Center gave me the appropriate skill set to succeed in a variety of environments.
Annie Drury
“My experience with the Grainger Center has been invaluable in both the support and resources provided during the recruitment process, and also in my academic preparedness for my current role. Through the program, I gained a strong cross-functional knowledge base which has helped me to understand the complex supply chain at Target Corp, and my analytical experience has made me comfortable to begin working on a broad network optimization project in the coming months.”
After graduating in December 2005 and taking a five-week hiatus in Europe, Blake began working full-time at Best Buy Company in Richfield, Minnesota, as a buyer analyst on the notebook computers team, a position he also held as an intern the summer before graduation. In this role, Blake has a wealth of opportunities, since notebook computers are the second largest category in the company. As a buyer analyst, Blake is responsible for pricing, promotions, and category store layout. He also assists senior buyers of the category with assortment, negotiations, finance, and long-term strategies.
Gina Hooks In December 2007, Paul will graduate with a degree in marketing and a specialization in supply chain management through the Grainger Center. Since the fall of 2005, when Paul joined the specialization, he has experienced supply chain internships with Harley-Davidson Motor Company and Miller Brewing Company in which he took on significant roles and was assigned to value-adding projects. Paul has gained experience with electronic data interchange, vendor relationships and improvement, customer service metrics, inventory management, data analysis, ad-hoc reporting, and project management. Paul hopes to obtain a fulltime position dealing with inventory management or data analysis after graduation.
“The supply chain is very important to KimberlyClark and is highly valued. It is well understood how vital an efficient supply chain is. The Grainger Center was crucial in my success after graduation. They helped me find an incredible internship that gave me invaluable experience. This led to a lot of options for employment postgraduation, because I had the experience companies were looking for. I also felt that I was well prepared for working in a fast-paced business environment and using what I had learned during my undergraduate coursework.”
Paul Studer
“Being part of the Grainger Center the last two years has helped me grow tremendously both academically and professionally. The supply chain specialization program offers classes that cover topics that are important in supply chain management today and are taught by knowledgeable faculty that have had years of experience in the field. The Grainger Center also provided me the opportunity to intern with some top U.S. companies where I was given real responsibilities. At Miller Brewing Company, I was the supply chain lead on the execution of a $1 million national rollout of specialty referee bottles. I am confident that experiences such as these combined with the education provided by the Grainger Center will help me to continue to be successful and make a difference in the supply chain of any company.”
Gina graduated from Wisconsin in May 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in operations and technology management and a specialization in supply chain management. She accepted a position with Kimberly-Clark as a customer logistics analyst in Neenah, Wisconsin. Her role within the company is to conduct vendor-managed inventory for a wholesale customer. She manages the customer’s inventory and works closely with the customer as well as the entire KimberlyClark supply chain to coordinate shipments for promotions and turn orders. Gina helps to make sure the right product is at the right location to ship when the customer needs it. After being with the company for six months, she was assigned a larger wholesaler account that has much larger promotions, and she has taken on greater responsibilities with her team.
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ÂťTo Learn More To learn more about how you would benefit from a specialization in supply chain management or adding the specialization to your current business major, contact Grainger Center Director Verda Blythe at 608/262-1941 or vblythe@bus.wisc.edu. Information on the simple application process, including an application form, can found online at www.graingercenter.com (click on Undergraduate Specialization).
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