FUELING THE SUPPLY CHAIN TALENT PIPELINE

The Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) held its first bi-annual partners meeting in 2001, bringing together its initial four industry partners and the teams of undergraduate and MBA students who reported on company-led projects completed as part of their practicum class.

Since then, SCRC teams have completed nearly 500 projects, results of which are now among the knowledge resources available to SCRC partner companies through the SCRC website and at the bi-annual SCRC meetings, said Dr. Robert Handfield, Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management and SCRC co-director. Clyde Crider, former supply chain manager at Caterpillar, manages SCRC partner relations and student projects as co-director.

“The SCRC appreciates the involvement of our partner companies," Handfield said. “Their company projects enable students to apply classroom learning to real world situations, covering a wide range of supply chain and operations issues, from contract management to ‘should cost’ modeling, experience that has helped graduates compete effectively in the job market,” he said. “The knowledge sharing during our bi-annual meetings is also enhanced by the diversity of organizations participating in the discussions." 

“This kind of corporate engagement assures that our students have exposure to the full range of procurement, logistics, and operational processes that they need to assure that they are ready for the challenges and opportunities in this profession,” Crider said. “Having a chance to talk with the professionals during our meetings, informally and during the ‘gallery walks’ when our students present poster summaries of their projects, also enhances their professional development,” he said.

In 2010, Mariel Webb was awarded the prestigious Richter Scholarship in recognition of her excellence in her supply chain studies, particularly in the area of sustainability, which was the subject of a project she completed while in the undergraduate supply chain program. 

Webb and her fellow students were among the first to use the new meeting and office spaces in the SCRC suite located at 2806 Hillsborough Street, across from Nelson Hall. The facility, which once was home base for the faculty team that launched the SAS company – was renovated in 2009, creating modern meeting spaces for SCRC, Executive Programs, the Consumer Innovation Consortium, as well as Poole College’s Office of Development and External Relations and Economics graduate student. The renovation was funded by a gift from Jim Owens, president and CEO of Caterpillar (retired) and president of the Caterpillar Foundation. This gift also funded scholarships for students in supply chain management studies.

SCRC continues to improve the resources available to the college’s supply chain students. In 2011, it installed a Bloomberg terminal in the suite, providing graduate students and faculty access to this robust database of business intelligence. One of the SCRC’s fellows provides training that can lead to a proficiency certificate in the system. Additional improvements in communications technology provide ideal meeting spaces for student teams and their sponsor companies.

A growing number of SCRC partners are supporting Supply Chain MBA Fellowships. Nine MBA fellowships were awarded for the 2012-13 academic year.

In 2013, the SCRC welcomed four new partners (link to story), bringing to 18 the total of partner companies. They represent seven industry sectors, including one non-profit organization. SCRC’s Industry Advisory Board, formed in 2012, is helping to assure that Poole College’s undergraduate and graduate curricula in supply chain and operations is aligned with industry needs. At the undergraduate level, a growing number of students in the bachelor of accounting program’s managerial accounting  concentration are also taking supply chain courses so that they are prepared to analyze data and evaluate the supply chain, business processes and costs.

The SCRC website is a knowledge portal for its partner companies. Continually updated with results of surveys and other research conducted by the college’s supply chain faculty, it provides timely, relevant information for today’s supply chain professionals. The information is presented in reports, the SCRC Newsletter, white papers and Handfield’s blog, Supply Chain View from the Field.

Cecil Bozarth was among the first new faculty members to join Poole College when it was created in 1992; Handfield joined the faculty a few years later. The faculty, which now includes both researchers and practitioners with significant industry and consulting experience, comprise the supply chain operations faculty group in Poole College’s Department of Business Management. They are: Brian Ashford, lecturer; Cecil Bozarth, professor; Clyde Crider, SCRC co-director; Donavon Favre, lecturer; Tracy Freeman, teaching assistant professor; Robert Handfield, Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management; Stephen Haynes, lecturer; Christian Rossetti, assistant professor; Jeffrey Stonebraker, assistant professor; Samuel Straight, lecturer and executive in residence; Don Warsing, associate professor.  

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