Winning team members and Home Depot executives join for a post-competition photo.
From left: Jenna Kushner, Hae Kyoung Joung, Lacey Barnickel, Paul Hilsdon (Home Depot Manager of International Logistics and Global Liner Operations), Robert Arwood (Home Depot Logistics Manager), Eric Scholar (Home Depot Director of International Logistics), Logan Stratchko, Todd Schrecengost and Andrew McCullough.

Supply Chain Challenge Engages Smith Students, Fortune 500 Execs

Leaders of Fortune 500 company The Home Depot traveled from Atlanta to the University of Maryland on Dec. 12, 2011, to listen to potential solutions to a looming logistical problem.

Home Depot, like other companies in the United States, is bracing for ocean liners to discontinue providing chassis (truck-towed steel frame trailers) for inland shipping of imported goods. The problem was one of two scenarios in a semester-closing Global Supply Chain Challenge involving Robert H. Smith School of Business undergraduates. The other problem involved a procurement scenario in disaster-afflicted Japan for Baltimore-based Constellation Energy.

Participating students demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills with a real-world logistics challenge through a course, International Supply Chain Management, taught by Distinguished Tyser Teaching Fellow Gary Cohen.

Winning-team member Lacey Barnickel summarized her group's solution: Home Depot coordinating hybrid chassis pools via trucking and chassis leasing companies. "The scheduling of chassis utilization and tracking will be left to the pool and trucking companies, enabling the Home Depot to remain as cost neutral as possible through this change," said Barnickel, whose teammates were Jenna Kushner, Hae Kyoung Joung, Lacey Barnickel, Logan Stratchko, Todd Schrecengost and Andrew McCullough.
Eric Scholar, director of international logistics for Home Depot, described the idea as plausible and worth further examination related to financials and other variables.

Collectively, the students' performance impressed Scholar and two of his Home Depot colleagues on hand to judge the presentations. "They researched a topic that’s not well-known, so this wasn’t something they could just wing. They really had to do the work," he said. "They answered some very tough questions that showed they did their work and provided facts backing their argument – so it wasn’t case of them throwing out ideas and seeing which ones stuck."

Runner-up participants were Lizzi Bollinger, Elise Mendelsohn, Ryan Rosenfeld, Anett Soot, Lisa Wagner, and Alexander Wang. Executives from both participating companies had chosen semi-finalist plans from eight participating team proposals on paper sent earlier by Cohen.

Leaders of Constellation Energy, unable to participate in a final round, had selected a pair of Smith student proposals advising whether to procure and install a new electric generator from Japan-based Mitsubishi. Assessment was largely based on supply chain risk factors associated with the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Comprising the CE-selected teams were Nathan Blaker, Arin Damar, Victor Kulnarang , Jenna Levine, Rachel Tyrer, Gabe Bustos, Mark Faegans, Lauren Filocco, Zarina Reznikov, Gina Wickless, and Xiaoxiao Yu.

"The competition gave students opportunity to experience real-world scenarios in global purchasing and supply chain management and provided The Home Depot executives, in this case, the chance to meet members of the next wave of supply change talent entering industry," said Cohen, who has held several senior executive positions in his 30-year corporate career.

The Smith School's logistics, transportation and supply chain management program is consistently recognized among the best business school programs in the country. U.S.News & World Report ranked the undergraduate program No. 9 in the United States in 2011. The Smith School launched a master's of business in supply chain program in fall 2011. Smith's supply chain management curriculum incorporates all aspects of the industry, including expanding global networks and cutting-edge technology. In addition to offering a range of academic courses, the school is home to the Supply Chain Management Center, which provides research, consulting services and education highlighting the latest advances in e-supply chain management.

For more information, go to http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/lbpp/

Greg Muraski, Office of Marketing Communications