WSU Supply Chain Students Place First in National Competition
Weber State University bested 18 other national and international teams to win this year’s national supply chain management competition.
In the past five years, Weber State has advanced to the finals four times, but 2020 is WSU’s first national championship in the competition. The university is the home to the oldest supply chain management (previously logistics) program in Utah.
The General Motors/Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business Supply Chain Case Competition is now in its 10th year and attracts the nation’s top-ranked programs. This year’s competition was held virtually and addressed supply chain sustainability for the Chevrolet Corvette, Cadillac Escalade and GMC Hummer.
WSU’s team consisted of Amberly Arrington Carter, Jared Theurer, Cameron Loftus and Zac Bartholomew. A major aspect of their challenge was to understand and articulate the supply chain sustainability problem facing General Motors.
“GM is coming to you and saying, ‘Here is an 11-paged packet explaining our situation to you. How do we move forward?’” Carter said. “Our job was to identify the decision makers, the issues at hand and to find a viable solution.”
In the first round, the Weber State team analyzed the case and sent a recording of their presentation to a panel of judges selected from General Motors' executive board. Their performance earned one of the highest scores ever awarded in the competition.
Theurer, who will graduate this spring, said the high score was a result of how the WSU team handled “the twist.” The twist is meant for the final round, where judges add difficulty to the case and give the students 24 hours to consider a solution. The team presents the analysis live, followed by a question-and-answer session. In this year’s twist, factors of a supplier’s diversity, inclusion and corporate social responsibility all had to be incorporated.
Drawing on best practices learned from their supply chain management lectures and textbooks, the Weber State team had worked those answers into their first-round presentation even before they received the additional twist.
“We analyzed the triple bottom line and developed our scorecard around that,” Theurer said. “The triple bottom line focuses on the people, the planet and the profitability of business. Companies have to achieve these three goals in order to be completely sustainable.”
Stan Fawcett, director of Weber State’s supply chain program, and Dee Fawcett, team advisor, help students analyze and present challenging cases as part of their regular course of study.
“Although the students learn tools to analyze and present, when it comes to the competition, they are completely on their own,” Dee said. “Experiential learning and coaching are hallmarks of the supply chain program at Weber State.”
For the Fawcetts, who announced their retirement for December, the national win is proof the program will continue to flourish.
“The case course at Weber State, taught by the Fawcetts, prepared us to bring presentations to the workforce,” Carter said. “We understand the principles and process of supply chain management, but we have to be able to articulate that information to our colleagues and bosses.”
Carter, who is a first-generation college student, said she always thought she would go into teaching, but then she found business was “everything she enjoyed about people and data all in one career.”
She will graduate in fall 2021 with a major in supply chain management and a minor in data analytics and plans to work in worldwide humanitarian efforts.
Theurer is exhilarated by the impact of successful supply chain management and hopes to advance into management as quickly as possible.
“We usually see only the end products of the supply chain whenever we go to the store or buy something online, but we miss the journey of how they got there,” Theurer said. “Supply chain management enables every unseen step that turns raw resources into the products and services that we know and depend on. The pandemic has shown us that one weak link is all it takes to break the chain. If we want to prevent these disruptions in the future, we're going to have to invest more in supply chain risk management.”
WSU’s supply chain program boasts a 100% job placement rate with starting salaries between $53,000 and $83,000.
A generous gift from Jerry Moyes, founder of SWIFT transportation, to establish the Jerry & Vickie Moyes Center for Supply Chain Excellence in the Goddard School of Business & Economics laid the groundwork for Weber State’s Supply Chain Management program to compete on the national stage.
For more information about Weber State Supply Chain Management, visit this link.
Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
Allison Barlow Hess, Public Relations director
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu- Contact:
Niki Tonks, Goddard School of Business & Economics marketing manager
801-626-8940 • nikitonks@weber.edu