Tag: Research Centers

Five teams from business schools around the country competed for the $10,000 first prize in the first annual Monsanto-Olin Case Competition on February 12. The competition was designed to give graduate students an opportunity to provide innovative business solutions to a case study written about Monsanto’s seed corn supply chain. Participating teams represented:Texas Christian University, Rollins College, the University of Missouri, Pennsylvania State University, and Washington University.

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Since its creation in 1997, the Boeing Center for Technology, Information & Manufacturing (BCTIM) has established itself as one of the prominent supply chain management and operational excellence research centers worldwide. The Boeing Center has been focused from the very beginning on leveraging the synergies in the junction and three-way interaction of:  (a) top research faculty at a world-class university with strong expertise in operations and supply chain management; (b) intelligent and creative students across a wide variety of programs (from undergraduate, MBA and specialized masters, and doctoral programs); and (c) engaged corporate partners and experienced executives with a strong commitment to developing operational excellence and world-class supply chain practices.

In an effort to further enhance the engagement of our corporate partners in our center’s activities, and to seek the insightful guidance of high-level operations and supply chain executives, we have assembled an Advisory Board of the Boeing Center. The Advisory Board will provide the center with advice on future initiatives and ensure that its research remains timely and relevant, its events are engaging and well-attended, and that it continues to deliver value for our member companies, our faculty, and our students. We are thankful to all the executives from our member companies who agreed to be part of our Advisory Board!

Without further ado, CLICK HERE to see the new Boeing Center Advisory Board.

For more supply chain and operations management content, check us out on social media:

Early morning sunlight bathed the stoic face of Knight Hall as action-oriented executives from diverse industries gathered at Washington University for the 7^th annual Boeing Center for Technology, Information and Manufacturing (BCTIM) Industry Conference.  The theme was Supply Chains Disrupted:  Disruptive Technologies, New Business Models, and Operational Impact.  Executives from top companies in the region delivered presentations to quench the audience’s thirst for knowledge, and highly-skilled chefs from the Knight Center served delectable cuisine to sate its hunger.

Throughout the day, the angles of the shadows outside grew shorter, and then longer again, as theoretical and practical knowledge was transmitted between supply chain practitioners.  After a warm welcome address from Prof. Panos Kouvelis, the director of BCTIM, the attendees settled in for what would be a full day.

Tom Luft from Express Scripts kicked things off with a presentation about turning pharmaceutical manufacturer monopolies into commodities. John Vu talked about Belden’s expansion into strategic markets, inventory management improvements, and governmental regulations on the logistics industry. Mark Waight from Edward Jones spoke about how organized movement enables operational excellence in the service industry. Then, Prof. Kouvelis gave a special presentation explaining how effective risk management can foster innovation resulting in business model breakthroughs.

After lunch, Jeremy Soucek and Julien Marin-Couilloud discussed how Emerson manages risk in its own supply chain. Jim Kinnett went on to tell the audience about Monsanto’s journey through the creation and implementation of a digital supply chain, while Jeff Wieringa from Boeing described some disruptive technologies in the next generation of aircraft.

Finally, Chris Pickett impressed the crowd by explaining Anheuser-Busch InBev’s complex beer supply chain and logistical considerations.  All day long, pens feverishly scratched across notebooks in an attempt to capture the wisdom that can only be acquired from long years in operations management.

By Evan Dalton

Stay tuned to our social media for photos, videos, and slides from the conference, as well as fresh new content and upcoming events.

Center Director  and W. Patrick McGinnis Professor of Marketing Seethu Seetheraman formally launched the Center for Customer Analytics and Big Data (CCABD) at it’s launch event titled, “Big Data Dilemmas & Little Data Discoveries:  Understanding the Data-Driven World & its Outcome Value to Your Business” on Monday, September 28 at Emerson Auditorium in Knight Hall.  In his opening remarks, Seetherman explained that the CCABD was created to work toward greater understanding of the data driven world. “Why customer analytics? Because we have to determine which is the right model to solve the business problem, and to take advantage of existing knowledge of the problem and solutions.”  He also provided a now commonplace definition of Big Data, which is characterized by Volume, Variety and Velocity.

Warren Berger, author of  A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas contributed to the introductory remarks via Skype (photo above), by encouraging the audience made up of professionals, students and faculty to be persistent in asking fundamental questions such as “Why?”, “What if?” and “How?” in business and with data. He said, “Questioning is an app we are born with. It begins to manifest itself at a very early age. Between the ages of 2 and 5, kids ask 40,000 questions.  As we get older, we become less inclined to question everything. More inclined to accept things at face value. If you do this in business, you’re not going to be innovative.”

Event Agenda appeared on the Event App by Bonfyre.

Speakers at the event included a wide range of data experts from small companies such as Evolve 24 and Alix Partners, and large companies including Boeing and IBM.

In addition, Laura Tellman, EMBA 43 and Director Clinical Informatics at BJC Healthcare delivered a presentation called “Accelerate Analytics with Data Governance” on how organizations can begin the daunting task of building a practice to govern their data.

Event attendee Victoria Busch is in Communications at Ameren Illinois and is on the Advanced Metering Project.

Victoria Busch of Ameren Illinois.

She said, “Big Data is really important to us because we’re trying to make sure that we can build those relationships with our customers, to interact with them better,  and provide them better self service tools.  We’re using customer segmentation to help drive this effort and  we want to make sure that we’re using the right data to communicate with the right customer with the right message.”

Jean Shuler and Brian Lawton of Washington University Information Technology (WUIT).

Brian Lawton and Jean Shuler, both of Washington University Information Technology (WUIT) also attended the event and are eager to bring the advantages of understanding big data to the IT organization. Brian said, “I’m here to try to find ways to help build internal user communities around big data.” Jean added, “I’m trying to work with our internal clients as well, trying to help them figure out how to look at their data and be able to make effective decisions with it.  This is a way to get ahead of the curve and have  more insight into what can be accomplished instead of just getting the data together, but figuring out how to break through it.”

The clatter of silverware on dishes gradually died down as attention was directed to the front of the room.  For months, anticipation had been building and now it was time for Professor Danko Turcic to present his research to leaders of St. Louis business and industry. After Senior Associate Dean Todd Milbourn’s glowing introduction, a hush fell over the audience, the projector flashed to life, and Praxis Luncheon Series No. 7 was underway.

At one of the tables, Professor Panos Kouvelis, director of BCTIM and co-author of the featured paper titled “Hedging Commodity Procurement in a Bilateral Supply Chain,” looked on with a nod of approval. Around the room, he observed brows furrowed in concentration and eyes squinting to focus on plotted lines dancing between X and Y axes like butterflies on a barbed wire fence. The research was complex and timely, thus it’s selection for the Praxis series, but the purpose of the presentation was to cover the salient points so as to give the audience some practical knowledge to carry back to the workplace.

Kouvelis, Turcic, Mahone, Milbourn (L-R)

After the presentation, the visitors departed one-by-one like vibrant autumn leaves falling from their branches. A handful remained in hopes of gleaning a few more drops of wisdom from the authors, and from Richard Mahoney, the benefactor of the Praxis series.

But soon, even they had sufficiently sated their thirst for knowledge, so they shook hands with Dorothy Kittner, the event’s organizer, and made their way out of the Knight Center and onto the pristine Washington University campus.

As the door closed behind the last to exit, the lights dimmed and the room was once again enveloped in silence.  And through the windows, the hopeful light of the midday sun cast wineglass-shaped shadows across the white tablecloths and onto the floor.

By Evan Dalton

For more, including an exclusive interview with Professor Kouvelis on hedging commodities, visit BCTIM’s social media:
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Olin Professor Emeritus, Nicholas Dopuch, a legend in the field of accounting, was recently interviewed for the Journal of Accounting Research (JAR) about the nearly two decades he served as editor of the journal published by the Accounting Research Center at the University of Chicago where he taught prior to coming to Washington University in 1983.

Richard Frankel, the Beverly & James Hance Professor of Accounting at Olin interviewed Prof. Dopuch and produced this video.

In addition to the Journal of Accounting Research, Dopuch has served on the editorial board of several professional publications. A prolific writer, he has published more than 30 research papers and four books and monographs.

Dopuch has received the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Award twice and an Outstanding Auditing Educator Award, both from the American Accounting Association. In 2001, he was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame.

Prof. Dopuch was widely credited with revitalizing Olin’s doctoral program and for instituting high academic and research standards in the accounting program.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University (1957) and master’s (1959) and doctoral (1961) degrees from the University of Illinois, all in accounting. Prior to his tenure at Washington University, Dopuch taught at the universities of Chicago and Illinois and Indiana University.