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University of Kentucky team wins first MSU Undergraduate Supply Chain Challenge
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| SCM Challenge winners Matthew Choyce and Ryan Hayes from the University of Kentucky |
The Supply Chain Management program at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business hosted the college’s first ever undergraduate supply chain competition, The MSU Undergraduate Supply Chain Challenge, April 2-3, at the James B. Henry Center for Executive Development on MSU’s campus. Rather than a traditional "case", the competition involved a new supply chain simulation – the Supply Chain Operations Decision Environment (SCODE) – developed at the Broad School in cooperation with several major corporations including Chrysler, Dow Chemical, Flextronics, IBM and Motorola.
A team of two students from the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics took first place in the competition – Matthew Choyce and Ryan Hayes with their advisor Associate Professor Thomas Goldsby – and teams from Grand Valley State University and the University of West Florida took second and third respectively.
"The students found the SCODE simulation to be a great learning experience as it required them to identify key environmental variables, select a global operations strategy, and make week-to-week operating decisions for the firm," says the John H. McConnell Chaired Professor of Business Administration David Closs. "In the final evaluation, they could see how their performance compared to the other competitors in each of the key performance indicators characteristic of supply chain management."
Undergraduate teams of two to four students from around the country participated from the following colleges: Michigan State University, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Maryland, Syracuse University, Northeastern University, University of Kentucky, Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, University of North Florida, University of West Florida, Arkansas State University and Missouri State University.
The competition started on April 2, when students were introduced to the SCODE simulation through a simple "training" scenario involving a single manufacturing plant location serving the entire world. Decisions had to be made concerning which suppliers to use and what modes of transportation to use for inbound raw materials. Production had to be scheduled based on a demand forecast, and orders had to be filled involving transportation mode selection. The training scenario ensured that everyone understood the basic simulation, what decisions needed to be made, how to input data, what the output looked like, and how output should be analyzed to make the required decisions.
The actual competition on April 3 was similar but a little more complex: one plant location was given but a second plant location also had to be selected and two products were involved, not just one. Then the decisions that needed to be made were essentially the same types of decisions as in the training scenario, just complicated by the fact that there were two plants, two products, and students had to make assignments of markets to each plant. Other things that were considered included capacity requirements and sourcing strategies.
Teams were measured on total revenue, order fulfillment, inventory turns, and a profit figure the Broad School calls "supply chain contribution".
The Broad School would like to thank the following corporate sponsors for making the MSU Undergraduate Supply Chain Challenge possible: General Motors, Chrysler, Shell Oil Company and Dow Chemical.