6 minute read
Supplying the Demand
By Emily Daniels
Dr. Frank Adams (center) with the Maroon & White Supply Chain officers. Photo by Emily Daniels
As the threat of COVID-19 begins to ease and the world emerges from what can be described as a yearlong-plus nightmare, the demand for goods, labor, and transportation has skyrocketed. Everywhere you look, you notice aftershocks from the pandemic that have created a serious and ongoing crisis in our global economy – supply chain disruption. You may find that there are many bare shelves in your local retail and grocery stores. Restaurants may be out of your favorite menu items. And those perfect holiday gifts that you purchased online a month in advance? You may still receive them – just in time for the new year.
A recent study conducted by DHL states that one of the main causes of the supply chain crisis is the major shortage of talent: “As experienced leaders retire, companies are looking for replacements who have a broader skill set than those who came before them.”
Mississippi State University’s College of Business is working to feed the demand for talent with the launch of the supply chain logistics (SCL) major – the first and only dedicated bachelor’s degree program in supply chain or logistics in the state of Mississippi. Formerly a concentration exclusively for marketing majors, the new SCL degree program that began this fall allows students across all disciplines to take courses specifically focused on the inner workings of supply chain and logistics and learn how they can apply the information toward their own chosen professions. They can even pick up SCL as a second major to complement other areas of study such as industrial or computer engineering, accounting, marketing or international business. The sky is the limit based on the creativity of the individual students and what they want to achieve.
The history of Mississippi State’s SCL program dates back to 1957, first offered as a transportation minor, before eventually transitioning to a concentration within the marketing major in the early 2000s.
In the spring of 2003, Dr. Stephen LeMay – the only faculty member teaching transportation courses – decided to retire, thus the program would need a new champion. Without a dedicated expert, the program would not last. Marketing Professor Dr. Jason Lueg saw its value and volunteered to take on the challenge, learning as much as he could about supply chain, logistics and transportation. Fortunately, then-doctoral student Zach Williams, who had earned his undergraduate degree in the field, was able to teach the courses until Lueg could take the reins. It was during this period that the concentration was rebranded as supply chain management to cover a broader footprint than just that of transportation.
A speed networking event was part of Maroon & White Supply Chain Dat at The Mill Conference Center in Starkville in November.
Photo by Emily Daniels
In 2010, Lueg was appointed Department Head of Marketing, Quantitative Analysis and Business Law, so there was a need for another professor specializing in supply chain management. Dr. Frank Adams, who had earned his undergraduate degree from Mississippi State, joined the faculty in fall 2012.
“From the beginning, I realized that high levels of student engagement and alumni – young alumni – engagement were going to be important,” says Adams, Associate Professor of Marketing and Mary Jo and Paul Karre Fellow. “Most supply chain programs you hear of, dedicated supply chain programs, have had the benefit of a major industry right out their back door. We do not, so what we have had to rely on is relationships. And now that link to industry is changing because our people have infiltrated enough industries that they’re coming back to us.”
Adams says the program has had good relationships with several companies that they were able to build from early on, such as International Paper or Milwaukee Tool, as well as logistics providers like C.H. Robinson.
“What we’ve been doing since then is walking the floor on almost every career fair held since I got here, going after businesses that recruit here for other fields, which have not been specifically recruiting for supply chain talent,” says Adams.
Under Adams’ direction, the supply chain management concentration flourished, growing from just a handful to 88 students enrolled in the program by 2019. By then, there was a need to strengthen the program in areas like forecasting and procurement and to add another faculty member to allow for more courses to be taught. In fall 2019, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management Dr. Chris Boone joined the team, having previously served as Director of the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management Program at Texas Christian University.
During the spring semester of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought nearly every activity to a screeching halt. With much of the world under restrictions to shelter in place, consumers turned to online shopping for everything from groceries to retail. Digital Commerce 360 estimates that the U.S. alone contributed an additional $105 billion in online revenue in 2020 and accelerated e-commerce by two years. This surge in online shopping forced major corporations like Walmart, Amazon and Federal Express to hire more workers and overhaul their supply chains to avoid complete bottlenecks.
News of the disruption swept headlines everywhere, showing the importance of supply chain and logistics roles and the demand for skilled professionals post-graduation. As a result, the College of Business drafted a proposal to transition the supply chain management concentration into a full-blown major. By April 2021, the major became a reality. A new instructor was added, Dr. Lu He, and the program received a new name: Supply Chain Logistics.
Adams says within the supply chain management concentration, there were only four supply chain specific courses, and they could be taken in any order.
“Now we have nine hours in the major core. In addition, there’s the International Logistics class that is required in the College core and nine hours in supply chain-related business electives to make up the major,” he explains. “Within the major, there are lots of tools that we want our students to learn, such as Power BI and Tableau. But the number one thing that everybody uses is Excel. All our core classes lean heavily into Excel analytics. I’ve had students come back from their internships and tell me, ‘Well, these other guys, they knew Power BI and how to make graphs look pretty, but they didn’t know how to twist data the way I did.’”
Additionally, Adams says they are also encouraging SCL students to minor in Business Analytics.
“It’s become such an important component because although you can run a supply chain without much of a forecasting plan, it’s really hard, and it’s an even worse idea,” he states. “I have seen supply chains run just ‘shoot from the hip’ style, but that’s not viable long term. So that means you’ve got to have a lot of forecasting that’s got to be quantitatively based.”
Outside the classroom, many of the supply chain logistics students get involved in at least one or more of the many SCL-related competitions and organizations available to them throughout the year. Within the past year, students have competed in the Raytheon Case Competition and attended events such as the American Trucking Association Trucking University, Raytheon Technologies’ R.I.S.E. Program and the Women Impacting Supply Chain Excellence Future Leaders Symposium.
At MSU, a student club has been formed as well called the Maroon & White Supply Chain. The organization’s purpose is to get students more involved in their majors and help foster future professional relationships. Open to all majors, it meets every other week to host speakers, offer resumé reviews and tips and practice mock interviews and elevator pitches.
