News & Awards 

IBM’s Linda Cantwell is Spisak Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Linda Cantwell, IBM’s Vice President of Global Procurement, provided an overview of IBM’s rich history and shared her perspectives on what individuals and institutions need to do to succeed in today’s globally integrated, technology-infused world at this year's Spisak Lecture in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Penn State's Smeal College of Business.  She also portrayed the evolution of IBM’s Integrated Supply Chain and its path toward the future.

The Spisak Lectureship was founded in 1990 through a gift from the Alex and Ann Spisak family of State College. The fund supports lectures by outstanding professionals working in logistics and supply chain management.

Smeal Supply Chain MBA Students Win Competition

A team of MBA students from the Penn State Smeal College of Business won the 2011 Sam M. Walton College of Business International Graduate Logistics Case Competition, held Oct. 28-29 at Sam's Club headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The Smeal team of Jason Jones, Mehul Pathak, Jennifer Ruelens, Rashmi Sharma, Allison Shauger, and Erlend Weggers beat out teams from nine other leading American and European business schools.

The teams received the case at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 28 and had just 24 hours to formulate their solution and prepare their presentations. The case involved a collaboration between a retailer and a consumer goods producer in which the retailer wasn't receiving the consumer goods fast enough to keep its shelves full. The teams were challenged to analyze the supply chain and recommend improvements to meet the inventory demands of the retail outlet. To prepare for the contest, the day before the competition the teams visited a Walmart store, a Walmart distribution center, and the regional offices of Unilever. They spent at least two hours at each destination, meeting the store's and distribution center's management teams as well as supply chain and marketing managers at Unilever.

During the first round, the Smeal team was grouped with the University of Arkansas, Texas Christian University and the competition's two-time defending champions from Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. In the final round, they beat out teams from the University of Maryland and Brigham Young University. Teams from Iowa State University, the University of Minnesota, Rutgers University, and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden also competed.

"In the finals, our team was outstanding," said Alan Stenger, professor emeritus of supply chain management and the team's faculty adviser. "Not only did they have a good solution to the case, but their presentation skills were impeccable. One of the judges for the finals told me later, 'Your team owned that platform.'" Besides their presentation skills, which they honed in the Penn State Smeal MBA Program's acclaimed communications courses, the team also credited their organizational abilities. During the brief 24 hours they had to research, write and practice their presentation, the Smeal team managed to spare about five hours to get some rest. Above all, though, it was their case analysis that won them the competition. "We took a comprehensive approach to address the issues at hand," said Pathak. "Our solution wasn't just a recommendation, but a well-structured implementation plan, complete with alternative analysis and risk and mitigation components."

In addition to bringing a trophy back to Smeal's Business Building, the team members will split the first place prize of $3,000.

Vidya Mani’s Paper Selected as Competition Finalist

A paper entitled “The relationship between abnormal inventory growth and future earnings for U.S. public retailers” by Vidya Mani and Saravanan Kesavan (UNC Kenan Flagler Business School) received second place out of eight finalists and 42 submissions in the INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group Paper Competition.  The submissions were reviewed and scored by anonymous judges based on the importance of the topic, appropriateness of the research approach, and the significance of research contribution. 

The finalists presented their submissions in the annual INFORMS conference in Charlotte on Sunday, November 13.

Daniel Guide Named Co-Editor-in-Chief of Leading Journal

Daniel Guide, professor of operations and supply chain management and Binder Faculty Fellow at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, has been named co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Operations Management. He will share editor-in-chief duties with Thomas Choi of Arizona State University.  The Journal of Operations Management, published by Elsevier, is one of the leading journals in operations and supply chain management. It publishes original empirical research that will have a significant impact on theory and practice. As co-editors-in chief, Choi and Guide will serve as the journal’s principal reviewers, determining the content of each issue. They will focus their efforts on continuing to increase the journal’s quality while growing the scope of its audience. Guide has served on the Journal of Operations Management editorial review board since 1999 and was named the journal’s best reviewer in 2007.

At Smeal, his research focuses on sustainable operations, including the development and control of closed-loop supply chains, time-based models for commercial product returns, remanufacturing, and producer responsibility legislation. His research has been supported by grants from the Carnegie Bosch Institute and the National Science Foundation. Guide has served as a visiting research fellow at INSEAD and as a consultant on closed-loop supply chain problems to several global organizations, including Xerox, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Pitney Bowes, Robert Bosch Tools, and the U.S. Navy. He joined the Smeal faculty in 2002. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Clemson University and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

Smeal Student Society Honors Ed Reutzel

The Smeal Student Society has honored Ed Reutzel by choosing him to be in the Smeal Student Society Spotlight. Stop by the Atrium to see the poster about Ed.

Deborah Lentz Featured in CSCMP Supply Chain Quarterly

The last issue of CSCMP Supply Chain Quarterly includes a column on opportunities for women in the field of supply chain management.  The article highlights Deborah Lentz (PSU, Business Logistics 83) and follows her career at Kraft Foods from 1983 to her current position of senior vice president, customer service and logistics for Kraft Foods North America.  For the full article, please see: A World of Opportunities for Women in SCM.

SC&IS Programs Earn Top Marks from Industry

The Penn State Smeal College of Business undergraduate and graduate programs in supply chain management are No.1 in the country, according to a new report from Gartner. The technology research firm asked more than 400 supply chain practitioners and academics to rate U.S. supply chain education providers based on industry value (40 percent), program size (20 percent), and program scope (40 percent). Respondents were asked to assess how well familiar providers meet the changing needs of supply chain professionals and how efficiently research and innovations reach the student population. Gartner also factored in information provided by the schools regarding enrollment numbers, programs, and faculty size.

"The Smeal supply chain faculty's leading-edge research combined with our industry partnerships allow us to keep our classrooms reflective of the latest trends and developments in the supply chain industry," said James B. Thomas, the John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal. "It's nice to be recognized for these efforts by our peers and the industry leaders surveyed by Gartner."

The Gartner study is a continuation of the 2009 ranking of supply chain education providers published by AMR Research, which was acquired by Gartner that same year. Smeal was ranked No. 1 in the 2009 results as well. In this year's report, the firm published separate lists of the top 25 colleges and universities in graduate and undergraduate education. Smeal topped them both. The university rankings are part of Gartner's larger research project identifying skill and talent gaps in the supply chain industry. The results were unveiled at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference this month in Scottsdale, Ariz., and a more complete report from Gartner is forthcoming.

“The Chief Supply Chain Officer Report 2011” also identified Smeal’s SC&IS program as one of the best hunting grounds for supply chain talent. The report by Hau Lee (Stanford University) and Kevin O’Mara (Gartner) in SCM World was based on a survey of more than 750 global supply chain executives.

Smeal offers supply chain programs at every educational level. For undergraduates, the college offers a bachelor's degree in Supply Chain and Information Systems. At the graduate level, the Smeal MBA Program offers a concentration in supply chain management and, together with Penn State World Campus, Smeal offers an online, 30-credit professional master's program in supply chain management. The college also offers a Ph.D. in supply chain, and Smeal's Center for Supply Chain Research and Penn State Executive Programs offer three certificate programs in supply chain management. For more on Smeal's supply chain offerings, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/scis and http://www.smeal.psu.edu/cscr/edop.

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