Walton College Hosts International Logistics Competition

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Top logistics students from the United States and Europe traveled to the Sam’s Club home offices in Bentonville, Ark., to compete in the annual Sam M. Walton College of Business International Graduate Logistics Case Competition on Oct. 22-24, 2009.

The event was managed by the Supply Chain Management Research Center in Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

International teams dominated the competition wins with Darmstadt University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany, taking first and Chalmers University of Technology in Gottenburg, Sweden, capturing the third place slot. The University of Wisconsin-Madison finished second. The competition host sponsor, Sam’s Club, and an alliance of Supply Chain Management Research Center board member companies sponsored the event.

Johnnie Dobbs, executive vice president of logistics and supply chain management for Walmart Stores Inc., opened the event on Oct. 22 and took time to meet with the faculty representatives the following day. Tommy Conner, global head of Reuse Operations for Braiform, announced this year’s winners at the closing night banquet held at the Bentonville Clarion on Oct. 24. The top three finishers were awarded $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.

"We are honored to bring together graduate logistics students from 11 major universities," said Jim Crowell, director of the Supply Chain Management Research Center. "This year’s case ‘Braiform Hanger Reuse Program, a Retail Service of Spotless Group Limited’ was especially unique. The two primary characters in the case, Tommy Conner, global head of Reuse Operations, and Becky Herdt, program manager for the Americas, were present and introduced to the students after the final presentations at the Sam’s Club auditorium on Saturday. In addition, Stefania Tattoni, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Rome and case writer, flew in from Italy so that the students had an opportunity to meet the case principals and authors. Terry Tremwel, center research director and principal case author, coordinated the global collaboration that created this case.”

Each team competed as a "supply chain business consultant" hired by Braiform to design a global supply chain management system that would convince additional U.S. retailers to switch to a hanger-reuse program managed by Braiform. Currently, a majority of hangers used in the retail apparel industry are one-way hangers that may or may not be recycled. In a hanger-reuse program, hangers are collected at the retail store; sorted, washed and shipped back to apparel manufacturers overseas to meet up with new garments; and then shipped and sold in U.S. stores. In their presentations for the retailers, students demonstrated how Braiform’s in-store training programs and collaborative capabilities could link together supply chain partners on four continents to manage a flow of 2.2 billion reuse hangers for the U.S. retail garment marketplace.   Economic and environmental savings were critical component of each team’s presentations.

In addition to the case competition, students participated in corporate interview sessions and tours of the Wal-Mart Innovation Center in Bentonville and the Sam’s Club store in Fayetteville.

Judy McReynolds, the incoming president and chief executive officer of Arkansas Best Corp., was among the18 industry judges for the case competition. Judges also included logistic, financial and management executives from several of the event sponsors.

Students from the winning teams include:

•  Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany) — Sebastian Dreher, Alexadner von Scheven, Jan von Appen, Bjoen Schmeisser and Ulrich Berbner. Faculty representative for the team are David Thomas and Holger Koehler.

• University of Wisconsin-Madison M.B.A. Team (United States): Samy Affo, Mark Adkins, Amber Sleichter, Jennie Meresak, Ajay Balasubramaniam and Christopher Gajdostik. The M.B.A. team was accompanied by faculty representative, Peter Lukszys.

• Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden): Oskar Persson, Jonas Dalsenius, Fríða Sigríður Jóhannsdóttir, Azadeh Moazami, Cheng Yiou Luo and Kristina Liljestrand. The faculty representative was Ola Hultkrantz.

Participating universities include Brigham Young University, University of Arkansas, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, Iowa State University, Texas Christian University, Darmstadt University of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology.

The host sponsor for the competition was Sam’s Club. The platinum sponsors were ABF Freight System Inc. and Unilever. Gold sponsors included: General Mills, FedEx Freight, Walmart Stores Inc. and the Walton College Center for Retail Excellence. Silver sponsors included: E. & J. Gallo Winery, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Procter & Gamble, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and Transplace. The Bronze sponsor was Colgate-Palmolive. Patron sponsors were BNSF Logistics, CSCMP Ozark Roundtable and Tyson Foods Inc.

The Supply Chain Management Research Center serves as a direct link between the private sector and the University of Arkansas supply chain resources. It sponsors activities that promote both the academic and general body of knowledge encompassing supply chain management. It also supports student-focused activities centered on recruitment, retention and graduation.