Study Ranks College’s Supply Chain Curriculum in Top 20

In September 2009, their efforts were recognized when the college’s supply chain management curriculum was ranked in the top 20 nationally, by practitioners and academics alike: 14th by academics, 20th by practitioners, and 18th overall.

The ranking, part of the study, “An Update on the State of Supply Chain Education,” was led by Stanley E. Fawcett, the Donald L. Staheli Professor of Business Management at Brigham Young University and published in the September 2009 edition of Supply Chain Management Review.

Fawcett tracked changing perceptions regarding professional associations, university SCM programs, and supply chain journals and also sought to identify new educational resources that have become popular in recent years. He also took a look at continuing education options.

In his report, Fawcett quotes one senior executive who laments the shortage of managers who have strong functional skills and who can make holistic decisions, individuals who can “build collaborative relationships while executing with discipline.” The executive said, “We can find great entry-level people—the ones with strong functional skills. But finding people who can bring everyone together to work as a cohesive team is a real challenge.”

That’s the kind of supply chain leaders that the NC State College of Management’s supply chain faculty and the SCRC leadership team aim to build, said Rob Handfield, Bank of America Distinguished University Professor and SCRC co-director.

Working with Steve Edwards, co-director; Susan Clark, program coordinator; and the rest of the college’s supply chain and operations faculty, Handfield and the SCRC partner companies have built a learning platform that provides students sound classroom instruction and team-based practical experiences that have resulted in nearly 100-percent job placement at graduation for its participating students.

The curriculum’s real world perspective comes through the practical experience of the faculty and the dozens of SCRC partner companies that have worked with the college over the past decade, providing scores of projects for hundreds of students – MBA and undergraduate – to sink their teeth into as they internalize classroom instruction.