Students 'on fire' about supply chain managementStudents at the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business got up close and personal with supply chain management, thanks to an innovative new classroom strategy that puts students in the field in addition to teaching them theory out of books.

Students in Professor Michael G. Hasler's Introduction to Operations Management class had the opportunity to see the supply chain in action. With help from supply chain executives at Target Stores, graduate students in Hasler's course followed three items - a calculator, a patio furniture set and a doll - from Target's store shelves all the way back to their beginnings in Asia. After studying retail, transportation and distribution operations in the United States, the class traveled to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where they spent nearly a month analyzing design, manufacturing, vendor-managed inventory, logistics and order fulfillment.

The class was such a success that the university has decided to make it a permanent offering. According to Hasler, seeing the supply chain in action got the business students excited about their ability to make an impact on business.

The students "are on fire about supply chain management," Hasler told the crowd at the recent SCOPE West supply chain conference in Las Vegas. "They know that a decision about stocking shelves in Austin will have implications back to the quantity of plastic pellets a manufacturer buys back in Guangzhou."

The McCombs School of Business is home to a vast supply chain study center, called the Supply Chain Management Center of Excellence. Students in another of Hasler's classes, also taught at the center, recently competed to create solutions for a case study based on Target's goal of "no stockouts" for their customers.
Share To:

Strategic Sourceror

Post A Comment:

0 comments so far,add yours