A group of four seniors from Grand Valley State University's
Seidman College of Business took top honors on February 12 when they
took top honors in the Undergraduate Supply Chain Management
Competition at Michigan State University.
The competition was organized and hosted by the Eli Broad
College of Business of Michigan State University. The students are
Kyle Koenigsknecht, who studies operations management; Michael
Hershfield and Jason Wilkie, whose emphasis is in distribution and
logistics; and Paul Rahrig, a supply chain management major. They
competed against teams from 11 universities, including Michigan State,
Penn State, University of Kentucky, Miami University of Ohio and Ohio
State.
“The team wanted to win because we knew that beating some of the
most well-respected supply chain programs in the country would bring
recognition to the quality of Grand Valley's supply chian program,”
Wilkie said.
Koenigsknecht added: "Given the competition, it was a great
opportunity to put our skills to the test and come out
victorious."
The competition participants receive three hours of training in
a simulation program developed at MSU 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 competitors were then presented
with a more complex global logistics challenge to solve using this
simulation program, and limited time in which to do it. The simulation
package exposed the students to real-world supply chain challenges,
requiring them to explore the interdependencies of a large number of
variables and constraints.
The students were guided and advised by management professors
Ashok Kumar and Jaideep Motwani and marketing professor Vivek Dalela.
"Some of the competing schools have the best-known supply
chain management programs in the country," Motwani said.
"This award — coupled with the fact that Grand Valley placed
second in this competition last year — confirm the quality and rigor
of Grand Valley’s Supply Chain Management program and establish it as
one of the best supply chain programs in the country."
The competition was sponsored by Abbott Laboratories, The Dow
Company, Ford Motor Company, John Deere, Norfolk-Southern, Northrop
Grumman, Procter & Gamble, and Shell.
