Week 1-June 13th

The first week of ISM 6910: Global Supply Chain has begun. After only a six day break between Spring Quarter and Summer Quarter classes. The good news is that this is the first time in twenty weeks that I am studying something other than SQL databases.

Since the MS-ISM (Masters of Science in Information Systems Management) program at SPU only requires a few business classes and then delves straight into Information Systems classes its refreshing to take revert back to some business basics.

The first class started with an introduction of who the professor is. We learned about his education and career background. Dr. Hughes was previosuly the CIO of REI (Recreation Equipment Inc.). I was glad to hear about all of his recent endeavors in the business world because it often seems like tenured professors can get into a funk were they just stay within the educational community too long without getting any updated, hands on knowledge about their subject matter. It's one thing to read articles published by peers in your field, but it's a completely different (and better) situation to be an essential piece of an organization and then take time out to teach other's of your recent successes and failures.

We played a supply chain game that tested our organizational skills. Our challenge was to create a product out of 30 index cards and 3 pieces of 8.5"x11" paper and scotch tape. There were 4-6 rules put into place, but the biggest two were that the final product had to fit into a 12"x12"x12" cube and we had to finish everything within 15 minutes. It feels like we had an idea that would meet the guidelines of the project within about a minute and so we quickly just split the supplies evenly and worked on making three wheels. The problem with everyone in production meant that no one was taking care of managing other supply problems. No one on our team actually kept track of time, supplies, quality control or even took the time to create a sketch or prototype of our product.

It will be nice to get a different vantage point of a business other than operations and information systems management viewpoints. Supply chain management is something that I hear a lot about, but have had little experience actually dealing with.

I am going to start reading the first chapters in both Tom Mentzer's, Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management and Rivoli's, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy.